


Like Father, Like Daughter (Iron Man 1)

by stark1993



Series: Starstruck- an MCU Phase 1 story [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Father/Daughter, Gen, Iron Man 1, Midtown School of Science and Technology, Original Character(s), Parent Tony Stark, Slow Build, Slow Burn, The Ten Rings (Marvel), Tony Stark Has A Heart, totally worth it if you love loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:56:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27736474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stark1993/pseuds/stark1993
Summary: Tony Stark's sixteen-year-old daughter, Delilah Ace Stark, is sent from New York City to Malibu after her father is abducted by a terrorist organization. Being the daughter of the playboy billionaire and being forced to live across the entire country from him, her life has never been normal... but there's something she's never told anyone. That is, until Tony comes home and begins to build a super suit with Delilah's help. Tony finds out Delilah's deep secret and together, they save Stark Industries from a terrible fate.Takes place during Iron Man 1.This is the beginning of the story of Delilah Stark, Tony Stark's goofball and eccentric daughter who looks just like her mom. Delilah's story will weave in and out of parts of the MCU like the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and a few aspects I've created myself. And, spoiler: She totally falls in love with Loki from the moment she lays eyes on him.All characters except my own belong to the MCU. Many parts of MCU scripts are in this story and those are credited to the MCU as well.
Relationships: OC/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Starstruck- an MCU Phase 1 story [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028883
Kudos: 8





	1. Tony to Afghanistan

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first chapter of my first fic ever! I have this entire first story and the story that takes place during Iron Man 2 done, so please enjoy! I've put an embarrassing and unnecessary amount of effort into this. I hope you enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed and slaved over creating it. Thanks for reading!

Every night, for as long as I can remember, I dream of a woman. She isn’t doing anything, she never moves, she just floats there. Where is there? I don’t even know. Part of me thinks it’s space, or wants to think it’s space, but I just don’t know. You know how dreams are. They make so much since when you’re asleep, but then you wake up, and you think, “What the hell was that?” It seems as though, when I’m dreaming, I can see every detail of her, but the moment I wake up, those details are all completely blurred. Except for a few things. She has long, wavy, pale blonde hair. Her eyes are every shade of gray all at once, the shades mixing and flowing into each other. Her skin is pale, but not pale like the moonlight pale… more like pale like porcelain. Like you’re afraid, if you touch her, she may crack apart and no longer be. Or maybe I think that because I’m afraid if I do touch her, she’ll leave my dreams. I have no idea who she is, but I know that I love her. I know that I have a connection to her. And I know this: I look just like her. 

Every morning, I wake up to see the sun shining through my sheer curtains. I stop the alarm. I forget what she looks like, even though only seconds ago I was staring at her and she was staring at me. This morning was no different. I stretched a bit in bed and then fell back down, yanking the blankets over my head. I might have started to fall back asleep if it wasn’t for the harsh knock at the door. 

“Del?”

I groaned and sat up. “I’m awake!” 

“Good, so get up,” Arnold replied, banging on the door one more time. I heard his footsteps fall down the hall, then down the stairs. Arnold had been the head of my New York security detail, and my driver, for about three years now. 

“Good, so get up,” I muttered to myself in a mocking voice. “I thought the whole point of living across the entire continental US from your dad meant you didn’t have to listen to men with dark hair and mustaches!” I sighed and threw the blankets off.

“Jarvis,” I said to the robot butler built into the condo, “What’s the weather today?”

“A cloudy New York morning in February,” he responded. “May I suggest a raincoat over your jacket? There is a sixty-percent chance of sleet.”

“Of course, there is,” I muttered as I headed over to the closet. 

“Let’s go, kid!” Arnold called, shoving his hands in his rain jacket pockets. I bounded down the stairs, trying to tie my shoelaces on my left shoe while keeping my backpack on one shoulder. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” I replied, jumping past him and bursting through the front door. I turned around as he followed me, shaking his head. “What? Now I’m waiting on you!” I grinned as he reluctantly followed me to the garage. I paused getting into the car and looked out as he opened the garage door. 

“You’re not taking the subway,” he said, getting into the car. I rolled my eyes.

“Not even what I was gonna say, Arnold,” I replied as I got into the back. However, I couldn’t get the idea of riding the subway by myself out of my head all the way to school. I was never allowed to ride it by myself because, “Who knows what could happen to you?” I had rolled my eyes at Uncle Obadiah when he said that the last time I brought up taking myself to school. Like I can’t handle myself… 

“Your father is on the phone. He heads for Afghanistan in an hour or so,” Arnold said after a few silent minutes of him driving and me trying not to fall asleep on the window. I sat up and sighed. 

“Okay, I’ll take it back here,” I replied. He nodded and I heard the phone click over. 

“Hey, kid,” my dad’s voice came in through the speakers. I sighed and leaned my head on the window. 

“Hey, Dad.”

“You, uh, headed to school?”

“Yep.”

“Good, good, okay. Uh…”

“Are you taking off soon?” I asked, trying to make an effort. I always tried. Even if I was the only one. It always went like this: He greets me super awkwardly, I ask him questions, and he gets confused and awkward because he doesn’t know what to say to his own daughter without a script from his assistant.

“Yeah. Just about to, uh, take off. Listen, I’ll talk to you once I get back, so have a good couple of days, and uh, don’t… don’t get into a house? Trouble! Trouble—don’t get into trouble.”

“Couldn’t read Pepper’s handwriting?” I asked, rolling my eyes. The car stopped and I pulled my cell phone out. “Jarvis, transfer call to my cell, please.”

“Right away,” Jarvis replied.

“Bye, Arnold,” I called to the driver as I got out. It was already starting to rain, so I yanked the hood up over my head. I looked up at the large school in front of me: Midtown School of Science and Technology. I sighed and swung my backpack on my shoulder as I shut the car door. I headed for the steps and sat on the first couple, still on the phone, watching the street.

“Look, why don’t I stop in New York when I’m on my way back to Malibu? Could give the shareholders and Obi some peace of mind and you and I can do something. How does that sound?” Dad said, his voice uneasy again. He went off script. I smiled at the thought of it just being Dad and I, but I also knew it had to be too good to be true. I couldn’t pass this opportunity up, though.

“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” I said. “You could pick me up from school!”

“Oh, sure, yeah.” There was a pause and a conversation away from the phone. “Okay, kid, I gotta go! Let’s get in this bitch!”

“Tell Rhodey I said hey. I love you—”

He hung the phone up. I scoffed and shoved my phone into my backpack side pocket.

“Well, well,” a voice said as a pair of slender legs appeared in front of me. I smirked as I looked up at the Marten boots on the sidewalk, the ripped stockings, the pulled-up skirt that would definitely be dress coded, and the over-sized Midtown uniform sweatshirt half-tucked into the skirt. I finally squinted up at my best friend’s face. Her nose ring glinted in the morning sun and her chin length violent violet hair swished around her face in the sudden cold breeze. She twirled her umbrella as she smirked. “Say hi to your daddy for me, Stark?”

“You wish, Driver,” I snapped back as she pulled me up. We laughed at each other and headed inside for homeroom. It was a sort-of inside joke between Addison Lee Driver and I that my dad wasn’t around enough, and her dads were around a little too much. My father was a weapons and technology developer, and her fathers were Broadway costume designers. They loved their little girl, something that was plain obvious from the first moment inside their house; a gigantic portrait of Addy hung between the two curving staircases. It just attacked your eyes when you walked inside. I’m not even sure my dad had any photos of me, let alone any of them framed or above wallet size.

Addy and I sat down next to each other at our usual table for homeroom calculus and turned around almost immediately to face a couple more of our friends. Raoul and Danny were already deep in conversation. I could tell they were getting heated because Danny’s glasses were falling down his nose and he wasn’t shoving them back up like he typically did. I gave Addy a look and she shrugged.

“Infinity is not a number, it’s a concept!”

“Well, technically, every number is a concept! This entire class is conceptual!”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it!”

“Hey!” Addy shouted. “Nerds!” The two boys stopped and looked forward at us. Addy tilted her head. “Really? Infinity? Again?” I rolled my eyes. These two couldn’t agree on the idea of infinity. 

“I think you should give it a rest,” I added, giving Danny a stupid grin.

Raoul rolled his eyes and shifted away from us. I furrowed my eyebrows. 

“What’s your deal?” I cried. Danny gave Raoul a look, then glanced at me. 

“Raoul checked his rank again.”

“Oh,” Addy said with a snort. She turned around to face the front. “I thought he was upset about something important.”

“It is important!” Raoul cried at her. He gave me a look. “I dropped.” I sucked air in between my teeth. Raoul and I had been in a tight race for number one in our class for a year now. We pretty much had a year left to finish the race—and the winner would be valedictorian. 

“Well,” I said. “Tough, buddy.”

He was going to reply as his face got red, but the door slammed shut and everyone jumped into their seats, facing forward. Ms. Wiebe, our strict but agreeable Honors Calculus I teacher walked to her desk and set a thick stack of paper on it. I sunk into my seat and tried to ignore the fiery eyes of Raoul burning into the back of my head. She had our tests graded and would announce the top three tests, in order, to the class. I hated when she did it, because Raoul was usually second. I was usually first.

“Cassie,” Wiebe called, holding up a test. Each test was ten pages, front and back, and sealed like your typical standardized test. Midtown sure did go all out. Cassie got up and got her test. “Third best score. Well done this time, dear.” Cassie smiled and sat back down, beginning to flip through it. “Raoul.”

Raoul grunted as he got up and walked to the front to get his test. 

“Well done,” Wiebe said, handing him the papers. He shrugged and walked back, making sure to give me those crazy eyes as he passed me. “And, of course, Miss Stark, come on up. A perfect score this time. A very excellent job done.” I gave her a small smile as I walked up to get my test. In red ink was written 100% and a smiley face. I walked back to my seat, ignoring the glares and eye rolls. 

“It’s just ‘cause of her dad,” I heard from the back. It took everything in me to not turn around and give her a glare. I wasn’t supposed to hear. No one else heard, because Cassie Jacobs whispered it to her desk partner, but I heard it plain as day. I turned around quickly and sat down. Everyone always said that. It’s because my dad paid for the new gymnasium and track and field, the auditorium, and all the vending machines. It’s because he made me take lessons since the time he got me. It’s because he’s a genius, so he made me into one. Well, it’s also because of me. There’s more to me than they would ever know. There’s a lot more to me than just being Tony Stark’s daughter.


	2. Delilah to Malibu

The next day, we were back in homeroom calculus. Danny, Raoul, Addy, and I were crowded around the boys’ table, running through lots of equations. It was a game Wiebe liked to make us play: have everyone get into teams, give us a list of unequal equations, balance them out, and then the first group to get them all right gets five points added to their worst test score. The thing was, Raoul and I hardly needed any extra credit. Danny and Addy, on the other hand, could use the points bad. And, unfortunately for the rest of the class, Raoul and I were competitive as hell. We always got those bonus points, whether we needed them or not.

I wasn’t feeling well, though. My head kind of hurt. I had a dream last night, a strange one, where I couldn’t see anything, but I heard a lot of yelling and felt danger. I woke up from it, sweating, and hadn’t felt right since. Something inside of me was tense, something I couldn’t shake or pinpoint.

“Nope,” I said, taking a sheet of paper from Danny. I wrote over his work and handed it back to him. He muttered something snarky but continued to balance out equations. 

“Hmm?” Addy said, showing me an equation. I frowned at it, then gripped the table as I suddenly felt weak. “Del?” Addy whispered. We were running through equations like madness, and I had just paused.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I—I got dizzy—”

“Yes, Addy, that one’s good!” Raoul replied. “Stark, get your head in the game!”

“Trying,” I muttered as I looked back down at the equations, feeling slightly better. The imminent feeling was still there, but I ignored it.

“One more left,” Danny whispered. I looked up from our huddle at the other tables. I squinted at everyone else’s tables, looking closely at their checklists. 

“We’re ahead, doing pretty well,” I whispered, ducking back down.

Addy looked up and around at the others’ tables. “How can you even tell?”

“I have great vision,” I replied quickly. It wasn’t a total lie. She scoffed and looked back down. “Cassie and her group are close, though.”

“Done!” Raoul whispered, handing me the last complete equation.

“Yes!” I hissed, making sure no one heard me. “Okay, the second we see Cassie make that stupid know-it-all face, everyone yell ‘time!’” We all did a discreet fist bump and pretended to continue working. It was juvenile, I know, but Cassie got on our nerves so bad. We’d never let her win. Every time we played this game, we let her get closer and closer, but we knew she’d never get those points. 

The door to the classroom opened and a student office aide came in. I glanced up, with everyone else, then ducked down quickly, my curiosity of who opened the door settled immediately. Danny was beginning to draw a hangman board. I paused as I watched him draw. Just as I was about to focus in on the aide and Wiebe’s conversation, I felt a static shift in the energy of the room. Something was wrong. The feeling I had had since my dream was getting bigger.

“Delilah?” Ms. Wiebe called. I frowned and glanced at my teammates, then turned around to her. 

“Yes ma’am?”

“You’re needed in the office, dear.”

I heard a snicker from the back corner of the room and snapped around to look at Cassie. She was smirking. “Oooh,” she sung at me. 

“Time!” Addy screamed, holding up our finished work. Cassie glared at her and her teammates groaned. I just looked at Ms. Wiebe. What the hell did I do?

“And, um,” Wiebe said, glancing back down at the note the aide handed her, “Bring your things, will you?” I nodded slowly and began to pack up.

“What did you do?” Danny snickered as Ms. Wiebe walked over to our table. She took the papers from Addy and began to check them. I shrugged, threw my backpack over my shoulder, and walked out. As I walked down the hall, I thought about everything I had done recently. I did hack into the CCTV to censor everyone’s left eye, but they fixed that one quickly and chalked it up to a “glitch.” Maybe Principal Wetherbee finally figured out I changed his voicemail message. I’ve been waiting for that one to come up for a while. But, again, the air felt different. Severely different—like someone was dead or something. I walked into the office and frowned as I saw Arnold stand up from the chair he was sitting in.

“Arnold?” I asked, walking to him. 

“Thank you, Jamie,” Arnold said, nodding to the secretary. She smiled and nodded. 

“Delilah,” she said, waving.

“Ms. Finch,” I replied, smiling uneasily. Arnold grabbed my backpack and put his hand on my back, moving me to the doors. “Dude, what—”

“Just get in the car, don’t stop, don’t look around.” He pushed us through the doors and down the steps and practically threw me by the backpack into the back of the car.

“Arnold!” I cried as he shut the door and ran around to the driver’s seat. He hopped in and took off immediately. “Arnold, what’s wrong?”

“It’s your father,” he replied, answering a phone call. “Miss Potts, I have Delilah, we’re headed to the airfield now.” My heart sank into my gut and I could feel it beating throughout my whole body. Why did I have to think that about someone being dead?!

“Oh, thank God,” Pepper Potts, my dad’s assistant, breathed out in relief. 

“What the hell?” I cried, leaning forward. “Pep, why am I getting on a plane? What happened to Dad?” I could feel the air contract around me. 

“Del…” Pepper said, her voice cracking. “We—we got a ransom video of your dad. Some terrorist group has demanded that he… that he build them a Jericho.” I sat back, shocked. Terrorists had my dad? I didn’t need to get on a plane to Malibu, I needed to fly to Afghanistan. “You’re coming to Malibu so you can be with Happy and me. You’ll be safer here.”

“What? No!” I leaned forward and grabbed the headrest of the passenger seat. I glanced down at my hands. I could hear the hum of energy as I saw a couple sparks shoot off of them. I gasped and jumped back into my seat, sitting on my hands. “No, I need to stay here! I can’t not go to school! Obi is here, Arnold is here, I’m fine, Pep! I can’t go to Malibu!” I cried. I heard Pepper sigh.

“I’m sorry, Del, I know your friends are there, but Midtown has agreed to let you turn in work electronically to your classes. They understand our security precautions,” Pepper told me. “Besides, I would just… Ugh, I would feel a lot better seeing your face and knowing you’re okay, okay?”

“I can’t go to Malibu!” I felt myself panicking. I could break out of this car so easily… I could just fly to Afghanistan. Could I? I seriously began considering it when Pepper interrupted my thoughts.

“Del, taking you to Malibu is part of your father’s emergency procedures,” she said. I paused.

“His… what?”

“Emergency procedures.”

“My dad? Tony Stark? Has… emergency procedures?” The fear and concern clouding me vanished and was replaced by complete shock and confusion. If we were in a different situation, it might actually be funny that he had “emergency procedures.”

“Yes, I know, it’s shocking, but the second we lost contact, Jarvis sent me the file. It’s…” She scoffed. “It’s pretty detailed. So, yes, you are coming to Malibu.” Emergency procedures… That was the most un-Tony Stark thing I had ever heard. Then again, so was having to build a weapon for a terrorist organization. 

“In the event of his or your safety being compromised, you are to return to the safest place for you, and, right now, that place is Malibu, at your father’s mansion,” Arnold chimed in. I just gave him a look. He, and the rest of my New York detail, was probably relieved to have a break from me. 

“Arnold, call me when she gets on the plane,” Pepper said.

“Yes, ma’am.” The call disconnected. 

“Malibu,” I hissed, looking up at the sky. As we drove to the airfield, my thoughts began to swim. My dad was Tony Stark, the most American billionaire there ever was, except, I guess, maybe for my grandfather. He taught Dad everything he knew, and then Dad taught me, well… some stuff. It was embarrassing as hell to be his kid. I knew he didn’t want me, but secretly—and I would never tell him this—I looked up to him. He was a genius, even if he was a man whore who ran around and somehow miraculously only had one kid. At least, one kid of which he knew. I’ve worked so hard to be like him, not exactly in those ways, but to be as smart and brilliant as him. I don’t think he would ever guess where most of my intuition came from, though. It didn’t matter. He would probably never know. No one would know, unless I wanted to become some NASA science project. I was going to become CEO of Stark Industries one day… and staring out the window at the blue sky, I had the horrible thought that that day would come sooner than later. 

I spent the entire plane ride flipping through different news channels. No one would shut the hell up about my dad. Why would they? This was the story of the year. Some people were saying no terrorist move had been so bold since Nine-Eleven. I scoffed and kept pressing the channel button. A thought was creeping up in my head that finally came to the front when I shut the TV off. Pepper called, she and Happy were waiting at the airport, and Arnold made sure I got on the plane okay. But I hadn’t even heard from Uncle Obi. Surely, he was busy, but I got an uneasy feeling about why he wasn’t calling me. this whole day had been bad feeling after bad feeling. Even last night, when I woke up… I frowned and looked down. 

Was that when he was taken? I thought. There was no way. How would I have known?

I spent the rest of the plane ride pacing. 

When we landed, I didn’t even walk all the way down the steps before I was engulfed in Pepper’s arms. I gasped and sighed, then hugged her back. It had been months since I’d seen the closest thing I had to a mom.

“Jesus, Del!” she cried, shaking and holding me tight. “Oh, I was so worried. I was so worried. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Pep, yeah!” I replied, pulling away. “I’m fine. What the hell is happening?”

“You two!” a familiar male voice called. I turned around and grinned at Happy Hogan, my dad’s chauffeur and friend. He was standing in front of a white convertible, tossing the keys. “Let’s go!”

“Happy!” I screamed. I ran to him and jumped into his arms. I might have left the ground too soon, but he didn’t notice as I crashed into him. “I missed you.” I buried my face into his shoulder as he held me. I felt him let out a huge sigh.

“Hey, Del,” he said quietly. “I missed you, too.” He set me down and nodded to Pepper who walked over to us. “Let’s get out of here.”


	3. Spring Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's almost spring break for the students at Midtown School of Science and Technology, but for Delilah Stark, stuck in Malibu, life is boring as can be. Thank God for best friends and visions of strange women.

I was sitting on the huge kitchen island, eating Cap’n Crunch, and watching the TV. Of course, they were covering Dad’s kidnapping again. I took a deep breath and set my bowl down. I focused on the picture they used of Dad, in sunglasses and a light blue suit jacket, grinning at the paparazzi. I closed my eyes. 

Dad, where are you? I thought. I imagined my thoughts spreading out into the world. To the complete other side of the world. I may have physically been on lockdown in the Malibu house, but I could at least try to reach my thoughts to Afghanistan. You’ve never been able to do something like that before! I cursed myself and kept trying to focus. Dad? An image flashed before me: dark eyes, a dirty and scarred face, and something blue. Something so bright and blue that was familiar, somehow. A circle of it, a circle of brilliant shining blue that disappeared almost immediately. Someone was walking in. I opened my eyes and let out a breath. Happy looked down at me, eyebrow raised.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Eating breakfast,” I replied, picking my bowl up again and taking a bite. He shook his head.

“You’re weird.”

“Thank you.” 

He started to walk away, and I huffed. 

“Happy!” I called. He turned around. “Are you going to the complex?” He nodded. “Can I go?”

“Nope,” he replied. “You’re staying at the house.”

“Come on!” I cried, jumping up and following him. “What am I supposed to do? I’ve been so bored, and no one will tell me what the hell is going on!”

Happy whirled around and gave me a look. “You’re bored?” I nodded defiantly. “You’re bored? Then why don’t you fix this. Jarvis?”

“Yes, Your Excellency?” Jarvis replied. I tried not to laugh. 

Happy pointed up, to the general sound of Jarvis. “Fix. That.”

“Yes, Your Excellency,” I said, giving him a little bow as he rolled his eyes and headed out the door. I sighed and walked down the stairs to my dad’s workshop and garage. I typed the code in, then walked through the glass doors into the large room. I walked over to the main control center and plopped into the office chair. “Jarvis, call Addy.”

“Calling Addy, Your Excellency,” he replied. I pulled up to a large monitor and started reprogramming his reply options. Addy answered the phone almost immediately.

“Dude!” she cried. “Have you heard anything?”

“No,” I said. 

“Everyone won’t shut the fuck up about it. They keep asking me. And Cassie is acting weird. Raoul is pissed off that you’re still doing schoolwork,” she began. 

“Oh, whatever! Like I can just not?”

“How’s that going, by the way?”

“What?”

“School! Like, homeschool! In Malibu!”

“Well, I’ve already done everything they gave me up until spring break. And I just got sent a lot of homework for after spring break. So, great.” We paused.

“How are you?”

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “Fine, I guess. Happy and Pepper just, like, won’t leave me alone. It’s already been a couple weeks and they are driving me crazy.”

“Will they really not let you come visit, even for a bit?”

“Oh, God,” I said, laughing, “Yeah, no way.”

“See if I can come down there!”

“I will. I promise! We’re on total lockdown right now, though. A reporter got through to the front door the other day and is currently being interrogated by multiple government agencies.” Addy and I both laughed. Then, we paused. "How was the last day before spring break?" I asked awkwardly.

“Fine. Oh! The seniors pulled their prank early this year,” she told me. “It was so funny. It was this giant pendulum they constructed in the main hall. Brett Matlin tried it out first and got completely wrecked in the junk.” I laughed just thinking about that goon Brett getting his balls smashed. 

“Idiots,” I said, finally finishing fixing Jarvis’s reply. 

“Our senior prank will be so much better!” 

“For sure. And we won’t pull it in March, like a bunch of noobs.”

“You have to be in charge of it.”

“We could reprogram the sound the bell makes. Make it play Crank That every time it rings.”

“Or Potential Breakup Song!”

“Oh, my God,” I moaned, laughing. “That would be annoying as hell.” Addy paused. I heard her talking to her dads in the background. 

“Hey, Del, I gotta go,” she said. “Dads are making homemade pasta.”

“Oh, nice,” I replied. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye!” 

“Bye, Addy.” She hung up.

I walked down a long hallway, looking around. It was dark and hot. The walls were crude, like they were cut out. Like a tunnel. I made it to a set of double doors at the end of the hall with one dinky light above them. I looked to my left. She was standing there, beautiful as the morning and night at the same time. She nodded to the doors. 

“You want me to go in?” I asked. She nodded and smiled. “What’s in there? Who—Who are you?”

She just gave me that smile again. It was sad but so full of love. She just opened the door. I stepped in to see a horribly dark and ill-maintained workshop. Two men were huddled over a table with lamps aimed at it. It was bright compared to everything else. I walked over to them and saw a man in spectacles hovering over another man sitting down, hunched over a bright glass container that seemed to be filled with brilliant blue light. My eyes widened.

“Dad!”

He didn’t hear me. I looked back up at the woman at the doors, but she was gone. I let out a deep breath and looked back down as Dad was working on the thing I saw in my vision. Suddenly, men were barging in through the doors and I gasped. I sat up in bed and looked around, frantic, then realized I was no longer there. It was a dream. I had seen that woman again, but this time… she led me somewhere. I talked to her. She smiled at me. I struggled to remember what that smile looked like, but it felt familiar. With a sigh, I laid back down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

It had been… around a month since Dad had gone missing. Obadiah, Pepper, and Happy were constantly talking in hushed voices, even when I wasn’t in the same room. Like that mattered. I still heard what they said. About Dad, about me, about the company. Every time I thought about it, I got that same doom-and-gloom feeling I got the day Dad was kidnapped. And that feeling told me I needed to go to the offices. I needed to see Obi’s computer. There was something he wasn’t telling us. But that was crazy!

Wasn’t it?


	4. American Cheeseburger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three months after Tony was taken, he escapes and is found.

“Jarvis, widen scope twenty-five percent,” I said, typing madly away on a laptop plugged into the main computer. A video played in the background, on another monitor. It had just come in from some secure military camera, and it was taken from around the area where I thought Dad would have to be. I was using Jarvis to pinpoint the exact location of the cave in the video. A giant suit walked out of a cave, engaged in a fire fight with some terrorists, and blew out the camera. It had to do something with Dad.

“Widening investigative scope by twenty-five percent.”

I stopped suddenly and looked up. I felt someone coming. Someone excited. “Jarvis, who’s—” I turned to see Pepper running down the stairs. She skipped the last step and stared at me from the other side of the glass. I stared at her. “Jarvis.” 

“They found him.”

I shot up, shut Jarvis down, and used all the human restraint in me to not phase through the glass between us. I threw the door open. 

“They found him,” I whispered.

“They found him,” she replied, grabbing my hand. We ran up the stairs, right into Happy, who nodded and followed us out to the driveway. We jumped into the car and Happy sped off immediately. I leaned forward, grabbing Pepper’s shoulder. “Rhodey found him. They’re on their way here; we’re meeting them on the tarmac.” I nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. I felt Pepper twitch under me and realized I must have been gripping her shoulder too tightly.

“Sorry,” I muttered, letting go and leaning back. I looked down at my hands. I flexed them, in and out of fists. For a split second, they glowed. I gasped and stuck them between my legs. I looked up. Pepper turned around and smiled at me. She had tears in her eyes. 

“He’s okay,” she said. “He’s okay. He’ll be okay.” I nodded and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I texted Addy. They found my dad. He’s alive. We were almost to the airfield. I felt my heart expand. I leaned forward. It literally felt like my heart was moving, like it was trying to move me forward. Maybe not my heart. Maybe whatever it is inside me that makes me the way I am. I grabbed the car door as I felt pulled directly in front of me. 

We drove right onto the tarmac, right in front of a giant military plane. I was out of the car before Happy could even park it. If I didn’t move, I would probably fly right through the car. A warm feeling was spreading throughout me and I saw my hands glowing again. I shoved them in my pockets as Pepper and Happy joined me. 

The back of the plane opened. Rhodey stood there and glanced to his left. My father stood next to him, looking a little skinny. His face was scraped and beat up, and his arm was in a sling. Pepper covered her mouth and put her hand on my shoulder. The pulling feeling subsided as soon as I saw him, but the warmth grew. I felt hot, like I had a fever all throughout me. Closing my eyes, I willed the glowing to stop. The heat faded. My eyes opened and Dad was walking towards us, a stupid grin on his face. I shook my head. 

“Hmm,” he said. His voice was hoarse. He glanced at Pepper. “Your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?” Pepper tried to hold it together. 

“Tears of joy,” she replied. “I hate job hunting.”

“Yeah. Vacation’s over,” Dad said, turning to me. “Kid.” I smiled and hugged him, making sure to watch out for the sling. I let out a deep breath as he put his good around me. I looked up at him.

“Thank God,” I said. “I really didn’t want to be an orphan.”

“Jesus,” Happy muttered. Dad just laughed and let go of me. He looked down at me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Am I okay?” I cried, looking back at Pepper and Happy. I whirled back around to look at Dad. “Am I okay—are you okay?”

“Never better.” He nodded and walked past us to the car. “Let’s go!” I turned around and stared at Pepper. 

“What?” I cried, in disbelief. “Go where?” Pepper just shrugged and watched Dad walk to the car. She shook her head and followed him, motioning for Happy and me to follow. I gave Happy a look and ran after Dad. “Dad, you just—you survived something… horrible!” I darted my eyes behind me at Pepper and Happy and pulled my dad closer. His eyes widened. “I saw.”

“Del…”

“I saw it. You made it. It’s a mini arc reactor isn’t it? What did you do with it? Oh, my God, was that you in the suit? Did the arc reactor power the suit?”

“What do you mean you saw? How did you—”

Happy walked up to us and opened Dad’s door. We just looked at each other as he got into the car. Happy put a hand on my shoulder and I sighed. I walked around to the other side of the car and got into the passenger seat as Pepper got in the back next to Dad. I turned around to look at him. 

“Where to, sir?” Happy asked, in the driver’s seat. 

“Take us to the hospital, please, Happy,” Pepper said. I nodded. 

“No.” I looked back at Dad. No?

“No?” Pepper cried. “Tony, you have to go to the hospital!”

“No is a complete answer,” Dad said, leaning back. I rolled my eyes.

“Someone’s gotta look at you, Dad!” 

“I don’t have to do anything!” he cried, shrugging. “I’ve been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger.” He paused. I shrugged. That was reasonable. “And the other—”

“That’s enough of that!” Pepper said, readjusting in her seat.

“Jesus Christ, Dad.”

“—Is not what you think it is!” Dad finished, giving the both of us wide eyes. He sighed. “I want you to call for a press conference now.” I frowned and stared at him. I noticed Happy gripped the wheel tighter.

“Call for a press conference?” Pepper shrieked. 

“Yeah.”

“What the hell for?” I asked.

“Hogan, drive,” Dad ordered, giving me a look. “Cheeseburger first.” 

Happy reluctantly put the car in drive. Pepper sighed. I just looked at Dad. He was still looking at me. I could almost read his thoughts. He wanted to know how the hell I knew about the arc reactor. He probably knew about the video of the suit, but it’s impossible to him that anyone would have seen what happened in the cave before the suit. I turned around to face forward as Happy drove.

“Seatbelt, Del,” Happy murmured.

“Right,” I said back, hitting the “t” hard. 

We pulled up to Stark Industries to a crowd of people and Obadiah Stane, right in front. I looked all around at the complex. It had grown since the last time I’d been here. More buildings, more grandeur. Uncle Obi opened my door as we pulled up and he grinned at me, giving me a hug. I hugged him back, a little disoriented by the flashing cameras all of a sudden. He gripped Dad’s shoulder and grinned out at the crowd. I took a couple deep breaths and sipped my milkshake. 

Happy shoved the bag of burgers at Dad. I glanced around at Pepper, who gave me a worried but reassuring look. 

“Tony!” Uncle Obi cried. I noticed his grip on Dad’s shoulder was tight. Tense. So was his voice. “We were going to meet at the hospital!”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Look at you!” Uncle Obi looked back down at me and he kissed my forehead. “Hey, baby!”

“Hi, Uncle Obi,” I replied. Did he notice my unease? What do I even have to be uneasy about?

“You had to have a burger?” Obi asked through gritted teeth as he led Dad through the crowd and to the main doors. The rest of us followed. “Well, come on. You get me one of those?” He pointed toward the bag.

“There’s only one left,” Dad said. “I need it.” I followed them through the doors into the huge shiny atrium, then around to the press area. I almost instinctively shielded my eyes from the flashing cameras. The lights bounced around off the shiny metal walls and the windows. To everyone else, those were barely noticeable. But I was already almost in sensory overload. The adrenaline, and who knows what else, coursing through my body made me feel like I would explode at any second. Pepper put a hand on my arm. We hung back as Obadiah led Dad up to the stage. I was thankful to keep the cameras’ direct flashes away from me. 

“Hey, look who’s here!” Obadiah announced to the crowd. “Yeah!”

“Are you okay?” Pepper asked me. I nodded, looking around. My eye caught a man in a suit and a clean haircut headed toward us. It wasn’t a military branch, but he had that air about him. I cocked my head at him, and he gave me a polite smile as he approached us. The look in his eyes was interesting. I had an unexplainable urge to have seen what he’s seen before. Something told me he’d seen things. Things I wanted to see. 

“Miss Potts?” the man said. Pepper and I turned to him. 

“Yes?” she replied. She kept glancing at the front, to the stage. 

“Can I speak to you for a moment?”

“I’m—I’m not part of the press conference,” Pepper said, motioning to the general sea of reporters. “But it’s about to begin right now.”

“Yeah, Pep, I don’t think Mr. Buzzcut is here with Time,” I joked. 

“Miss Stark is right, I’m not a reporter,” he said. He gave Pepper a look, then gave it to me. Pepper made an exasperated noise.

“Del, you mind keeping an eye on…” She rolled her eyes and pointed to my dad. “That?”

“Sure,” I muttered. I crossed my arms as she and the man stepped to the side to where I couldn’t hear. I sighed. Where they thought I couldn’t hear. 

“I’m Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division,” the man said, shaking Pepper’s hand. I tried not to look over at him with a face. A face that said, “Did those words really just come out of your mouth?” What the hell was Strategic Homeland… SHIELD? 

“That’s quite a mouthful,” Pepper noted.

“I know. We’re working on it.” He held out his hand with a business card in it. 

“You know, we’ve been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA—”

“We’re a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape.”

Now it was really taking everything in me not to look over. Surely that meant he had access to the video of the suit as well. No way he knows about the arc reactor, too. 

“I’ll put something in the book, shall I?” Pepper suggested. She was exhausted and dismissive. I couldn’t blame her.

“Thank you,” Agent Coulson said, nodding and walking away. Pepper took a deep breath and walked back over to me. I scoffed as we both watched him shove his hands in his pants pockets and walk off, looking around. 

“The hell was that?” I muttered. 

“I have absolutely no clue.”

Obadiah walked back up to the stage and smiled at the crowd. “Well,” he said, holding his hands out. “Let’s go ahead and get started, uh…” He looked around for Dad. He glanced down at him. Dad was sitting on the steps, leaning on the podium set up on the stage. He sighed and looked around, totally annoyed. 

“Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down? Why don’t you just sit down?” Dad asked. The crowd became uneasy as they all looked around at each other, totally confused. I couldn’t blame them; it looked like my dad had lost his mind out in the Middle East. “That way you can see me, and I can…” He trailed off as he took a bite of his burger. “A little less formal.” Everyone began sitting, slowly sinking to the ground. Pepper and I slowly moved to the floor as well, giving my dad the same crazy look. I heard someone walk up to us and felt a familiar energy. I looked over and grinned. Colonel James Rhodes sat next to me. He looked funny in his Air Force uniform sitting on the floor. 

“What’s up with the love in?” he scoffed.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know what he’s up to,” Pepper muttered.

“Rhodey!” 

“Hey, D-bug,” he said, nudging me. He glanced up and frowned. I looked at the stage where Dad and Uncle Obi were having a conversation by themselves.

“What is he…” Pepper started, but Dad faced the crowd and started talking. Finally. 

“I never got to say goodbye to my father.” He set his burger down. “There’s questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts.” I glanced at Obadiah, who looked extremely uncomfortable. It’s not like everyone doesn’t know those terrorists were Stark Industries customers. I sighed. “Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend and protect them. and I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability.” My eyes widened as he said that. Obadiah looked at him, his head turning quickly. I felt a warm, pulling feeling in my gut. 

“Mr. Stark!” a reporter called out.

“Hey, Ben,” Dad said.

“What happened over there?”

“I had my eyes opened,” Dad replied, standing up and walking around to behind the podium. “I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up.” He sighed. “And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International.” I gasped, my hands flying to my mouth. I saw a faint glow beginning and shoved them into my lap. Obadiah jumped up and ran around the podium. He grabbed my dad by the arm. The reporters all jumped to their feet, asking questions and flashing the cameras. “Until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be!” Pepper and I shared a look. I glanced over at Rhodey, whose mouth was open in shock. Obadiah just laughed and held his hand up to the reporters. 

“Okay, I think we’re gonna be selling a lot of newspapers—”

“What direction it should take, one that I’m comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well!” Dad continued, resisting Obadiah. I felt the pull so strong, this time I actually jumped to my feet. I just took a deep breath and put my hands in my pockets. Dad just nodded and got down from the podium, walking away. Obadiah let him go and moved to the microphone.

“What we should take away from this is that Tony’s back! And he’s healthier than ever! We’re going to have an internal discussion and we’ll get back to you with the follow-up,” Uncle Obadiah told the crowd. They didn’t like that answer and kept yelling questions.

“Yeah! Boo the war crimes!” I screamed. A couple reporters shouted in agreement with me. Rhodey and Pepper both grabbed me by the arms. “What?” I cried, looking up at them. “I’m not wrong.”

“That’s not funny!” Rhodey groaned. Pepper shook her head as they turned me around from the crowd.

“Ah,” Dad groaned, clutching his chest in pain. He leaned against the wall. 

“Tony!” Pepper cried, rushing to him. “We’re going to a hospital! Del—”

“No! Del, please.”

“Dad, you obviously—”

“Ladies,” Rhodey tried to say, but Dad shushed him. Dad groaned and looked at Pepper.

“I’m fine. It’s just… this…” He started unbuttoning his shirt. Pepper and I shared a look. He opened his shirt to reveal a glowing blue inside a circular glass case embedded into his chest. My jaw dropped. 

“So, that’s what you did with it,” I whispered. He just furrowed his eyebrows at me. 

“Oh, my God, Tony!” Pepper shrieked, covering her mouth with her hands. I got a warm yet electric feeling. I reached out to touch it. It shocked me. Dad jumped and just stared at me.

“What the hell…?” he gasped, staring at me. 

“Tony—”

“I’m fine!” He rolled his eyes at Pepper.

“You are not fine! What is that?”

“It’s…” I laughed nervously. “It’s an arc reactor. You have an arc reactor in your chest! Dad…” I looked at Rhodey and grabbed his upper arm. “Did your guys not check him out?” Rhodey frowned at me and pried my hand off. 

“I checked him out, and… everything is under control.”

“Under control!” Pepper scoffed. “You just—”

“Yes, Miss Potts,” Dad strained. “Under control.”

“Under control my ass!” I hissed. 

“Del!” everyone cried at the same time.

“What?” I yelled back. “Someone had to say it—everyone was thinking it! Oh, my God, Dad, that is… that is crazy delicate unparalleled tech literally inside of you!”

“Tony, please, do you have anyone you trust to look at—”

“Hey,” Dad said, calmly, “I’m fine. Really. If it comes down to, I dunno, tests or something, I have Del. She can help.” I just gave him a blank stare. Pepper looked down at her phone.

“Happy’s ready. This conversation is not over,” Pepper snapped. 

“Oh, yes, it is!” Dad replied.

“No!” Pepper and I both shouted after him as he headed for the doors. 

“Peace out!” he called back to us, holding up two fingers. The rest of us just shared a look. I gulped, knowing that something happened over there. Our lives would never be the same again, and not just because he might have changed the fate of Stark Industries. Whatever happened over there… Tony Stark was back, but he was different. And I thought it might be about time to tell him about me.


	5. Delilah Takes Flight

I woke up from a dream about the woman again. this time, something startled me awake, but I had no idea what it could have been. All I remember was just staring at her again… I tried and tried to make something happen, like in the dream where I saw my dad, but nothing happened. We just floated in space and stared at each other. I got up and dressed and ready for the day, but I moved like a zombie as I threw jeans and a t shirt on and brushed my teeth. All I could think about was that woman. I tried to imagine her face, but of course, I only saw pale hair, gray eyes, and light skin. No details. Some mornings I gave myself a headache just thinking too hard about what I saw in my dream. I sighed and leaned on my dresser as I rubbed my forehead. 

“Freak,” I muttered to myself as I saw my hand begin to glow. I took a deep breath and held my hands out in front of me. I was becoming more and more unstable. The longer I went without exercising it, even a little, the more uncontrollable I felt. I needed to do something. Quickly, I changed into stretchy pants and a loose thin shirt. Then, I headed downstairs. “Pep!” I called as I jumped past the last 3 steps, knowing no one saw, “What’s for…” I was going to ask what’s for breakfast when I saw the TV. Pepper was sitting on the ottoman, just gaping at it. I walked around the sofa and sat next to her.

“Why the hell are you watching Mad Money?” I asked quietly. Jim Cramer, host of the crackpot TV show, was getting extremely upset and agitated. And the Stark Industries logo was plastered across every screen on his set. I let out an exasperated sigh.

“Stark Industries!” the man roared. “I’ve got one recommendation! Ready, ready?” He dramatically and slowly pushed a button on a soundboard, and Pepper and I winced as we heard the annoying crashing effects and fake sirens. “Sell, sell, sell! Abandon ship!” He kept going at it with the soundboard. “Does the Hindenburg ring any bells?” Sounds of people screaming were added into the annoying mix of unnecessary noises. “Let me show you the new Stark Industries business plan!”

Pepper made a loud sigh. Cramer got up, grabbed a baseball bat, and swung it hard at a coffee mug. The mug crashed and broke into pieces all over his set. Pepper physically winced. I couldn’t blame her. This was just plain embarrassing for everyone. 

“Look!” Cramer screeched. “That’s a weapons company that doesn’t make weapons!” He pressed another button on the soundboard and a toy gun went off. 

“This is…” I trailed off as the intercom turned on.

“Pepper! How big are your hands?” Dad asked. 

“What?” Pepper replied, shocked at the strange question. 

“How big are your hands?”

“Okay, ew, I’m out,” I muttered, standing up. 

“I don’t understand why…?”

“Wait, is that Del?”

“I said I’m out! I’m going down to the beach!”

“Pepper, just get down here!” He groaned. “I need you.”

“Oh, my God!” I screamed. I did not want to know what the hell was happening in his lab. I ran out the backdoor and glanced around, making sure no one was looking. I took a deep breath and dove off the side of the house. I gasped a couple times as I fell toward the crashing waves and the rocks. I screamed and grinned and at the last possible second, I pulled up. “Yes!” I whooped and let my hand drop as I flew over the ocean. The water sprayed onto me and I gasped as I felt the cold water. It had been so long since I flew this much. It was almost impossible in New York to do anything but float around in my condo when I was alone. Even a large energy surge from me would knock out the power to my building. The thing was, when I held it down for so long it became more and more unpredictable. Sneeze in class, sparks would shoot out my fingertips. Chalk it up to an electric prank. Run too fast in gym class, get weird looks. Climb the rope too easily in gym, get more weird looks. Basically, gym class as a whole was hard to get through pretending to not be… whatever the hell I was. 

In Malibu, there were a lot fewer watching eyes. At least, there were a lot less over the ocean. This was where I taught myself to fly. I mean, really fly, not just hover around a room. I didn’t even know how old I was when I first dove off the cliff, right to the rocks, pulling up at the last moment. It was something I did almost every time I came to Dad’s mansion. I spread my arms, loosened my body, and flew close to the cliffs where I found a sturdy ledge to rest on. I sat down and swung my legs over the edge. Seagulls flew overhead. In the distance, I saw splashes in the ocean. I must have become lost in thought because suddenly, I looked out and noticed the sun setting on the horizon. 

They’ll probably be wondering where I am, I thought to myself. I had been gone all day, after all. I stood up on the ledge and dove down into the water again. I flew up as I neared the waves, and I took a sharp left to the private beach. A couple of security guards were walking around it. I took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface, then swam quickly to the shore. While I could do a lot of amazing things, breathing underwater was not one. At least I could use the same abilities that gave me flight to swim fast. I walked up on the shore and waved to the men patrolling the beach. 

“Jesus Christ,” one of them exclaimed as he saw me. He jogged over to me as he walkie-talkied someone else. “Miss Stark, are you okay? You’ve been gone—”

“I’m okay,” I replied, leaning my head to the side and squeezing water out of my hair. “How are you?” He just gave me a look and motioned for me to follow him. We walked down the beach and up to the steps that led to the back of the house. 

“Delilah!” Pepper sighed as we walked into the house. The security guard nodded to her and left quickly. She got up from the sofa, paused the TV, and hurried to me. She held my arms. “Are you nuts? You know you’re supposed to tell someone when you leave! Where did you even go?”

“I went swimming,” I told her, gently moving her arms away from me. “I’m gonna go shower, okay?” I nodded and headed up the stairs, but she followed me.

“Del! Del, stop! Look at me!” she called from the base of the stairs. I whirled around and stared down at her with harsh eyes. “You seriously cannot run off alone without telling anyone where you’re going! You know everyone is on edge because of—because your—” She huffed and shook her head. “You know what I mean. And you know what the rules are.”

“You’re not my mom, Pepper!” I cried, throwing my arms out. “I don’t have to do whatever! I can take care of myself!” Her eyes widened. 

“What… Delilah!” she shouted after me as I ran up the stairs to my room. I slammed the door and ran into the bathroom. I stopped and stared at myself in the mirror above the sink. My chest heaved as I let out a huge breath. I was right, after all, I could take care of myself. But why did she have to baby me? And why the hell couldn’t I go back to New York? I just looked at myself in the mirror. You know why. No one knows the truth about you, it’s not safe, blah, blah, blah. I started the water for a shower and went to grab some clothes.

I walked down the stairs, drying my hair with a towel. Pepper was back on the sofa of the main living room, and she was watching an old Western movie. I walked up to the couch and sighed, setting the towel on the top of it. She glanced up at me.

“Sorry,” I muttered. She just blinked and turned back to the TV. “I just want to go back to New York.”

“I know,” she replied. “Soon. It’s not up to me.” I just huffed. “It’s a little up to me. Happy, your father, and I all agreed… just not yet.”

“It’s been almost an entire summer! I haven’t seen Addy in months, and there’s nothing to do here! I don’t have any friends or—”

“Del, just…” Pepper groaned and covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know what to tell you, honey. Your dad… He’s working through a lot right now, and I think it’s best if you’re together.”

“Whatever,” I whispered. 

“You sure are his daughter,” she said with a laugh. She paused and looked back up at me. “You ought to go down there and see him. I don’t think you’ve seen him all day.”

“Yeah, I don’t know—”

“God, Delilah. Go downstairs.”

“Fine!” I cried, holding my hands up. I backed away toward the stairs. “Fine.” I turned around and walked down the stairs to the lab. I watched him through the glass working and completely engrossed in the news reports he has pulled up. The glass doors opened after I punched the code in, and he spun around. 

“Where the hell were you all day?”

“Swimming.”

“Swimming?”

“How did you escape?”

“How did you know—”

“I don’t know anything, I just knew—I figured the only thing you could have used to power the suit was an arc reactor…” I faltered. He had a look of extreme confusion on his face. I couldn’t blame him. I wasn’t making any sense, and I was obviously lying. 

“Whatever, weirdo,” he muttered. “Don’t hack into military cameras ever again, got it?” I just shrugged. He sighed and looked down. “I have no idea how you know about all of that, exactly, and I don’t think I want to know, so I’ll just forget it.”

I nodded and just stood there, still. 

“Something up?” he asked, glancing at me. 

You wanted to tell him. So just tell him! I let out a shaky breath. How was I supposed to tell him? I looked down at my hands, which were shaking. I saw the faintest glow appear and I hid them behind my back as I looked back up at him. He was frowning. 

“Del, are you okay?”

“Yes!” I cried out quickly. “Why?”

“I dunno… you just got weird for a second…”

“Sorry.” I paused. “Sorry. I’m going to bed…” I ran back upstairs.

I flopped down on my bed and stared at the ceiling.

“Idiot,” I muttered. “He wouldn’t care. Why would he? You’re a freak and no one wants a freak who can…” I lifted my hand and summoned a ball of energy. It glowed and sparkled in my hand. For a moment, I stared at it, almost mesmerized, then a voice in the back of my head said, you’re different. I blew the energy ball out and sat up. I was different, and people always say that being different is good, but it seemed like this kind of different was just too much trouble.


	6. Mark II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delilah's secret is revealed.

The whole summer felt like a waste. Even though Dad had come home a couple months ago, I still wasn’t allowed back in New York. Something about Dad’s security plan. I overheard him talking to Pepper and Happy about it—something about how he was unsure of how safe anything was. 

Addy was supposed to visit yesterday so we could spend July Fourth together in Malibu, but her dads canceled at the last minute. But after all the conversations I had overheard from all the adults watching me, I wasn’t so sure it was really them and not my dad who canceled. 

I was sitting outside on the deck, bored out of my mind, when Dad’s voice came through the outside comms. 

“Del!”

“’Sup,” I replied in my best “I’m bored” tone. 

“I have something I want to show you. Come downstairs to the lab.”

“Whatever,” I muttered as I slid off the side of the deck and walked inside. I passed Pepper, who was on the phone, again, and headed down the stairs. I approached the glass doors and typed the code in. Beyond them, Dad was typing furiously at a monitor. I walked inside and he glanced up. 

“Hey!”

“Hey…” I replied. “You seem like you’re… in a good mood.” The past few months had been hard for him, obviously, and he hadn’t touched any work the whole time he’d been home. Working on something seemed like a good sign. 

“I might be,” he replied, throwing a few holo-screens up. I stepped into the area he was working in and looked around. 

“What… is it?” I was looking at a man, or maybe a suit, but it was hard to tell from the basic renderings I was shown. I saw the helmet spin around on one screen, however, and recognized it almost immediately. “The—the suit you made in Gulmira!”

“Yes, except this… is the Mark Two.”

“Whoa,” I said, beginning to move the renderings around and look at the specs. “Whoa—rocket launchers?”

“And grenades.”

“Guns.”

“And energy blasters.”

I backed away from the screen he showed me of an energy blast that the suit would be able to shoot. I opened my mouth but shut it fast. 

“No? Don’t like the energy blasts?”

“No, I…” Tell him! Tell him now! “It’s super cool. What are you gonna do with it?”

“Uhh,” he said, looking back at the screen. “Well, first on the docket would be to destroy the Ten Rings. Fly around a bit, save a damsel in distress, maybe.” He chuckled.

“You need some help with that?” I asked, trying to be casual. He just laughed and turned back to the screen, making a couple adjustments. “Can I show you something?” I blurted out. He paused, surprised by my sudden outburst. My heart was thumping. I could hear it. I could see it. Could he? Of course not. 

“Sure. You got a suggestion?”

“No,” I replied shakily. “I—I have something, um, something—I don’t know, I mean, something’s wrong with me.” He turned around with a confused frown. 

“Are you… sick?”

“No. I don’t know what to call it, really, um… Shit, I shouldn’t have even…” I trailed off, feeling warmer. I took a deep breath and tried to control everything happening inside me. 

“Del,” Dad said, suddenly sounding extremely concerned. I looked down. “What’s wrong?”

“If I tell you—no, I can’t tell you, I just have to show you—but if I do, you can’t tell anyone, not even Pepper, or Happy, or Obi, literally, no one, you can’t tell anyone, you have to swear to God!”

“Okay! You’re freaking me out, kid!”

“You have no idea…”

“Just show me!” he cried, frustrated and concerned now. Before I could rethink this decision, I pulled my hands out from behind my back. They were still glowing. I threw a hand up and an energy beam shot across the room, into the wall. I let out a deep breath and shook my hands. My entire body began to radiate energy, and soon I was covered head to toe in a gentle yellowish-green glow.

“Holy shit, that feels good!” I groaned. I couldn’t help it; it was like the feeling of finally cracking a stiff joint, getting into the shower after a long run in the hot sun, getting into bed after a long day, or popping bubble wrap. It was like I had energy muscles inside of me that had been tense for so long. Months, really. As I shook out my hands, sparks fell off them, and I couldn’t help myself; I shot a few more energy blasts into the side of the room. An energy pulse radiated off my body and I leaned my head back, feeling a lot more relaxed than I had been in a very long time. slowly, I looked up at my dad. His mouth was open, and his eyes were wide. “Please don’t call the government or something.”

“Delilah!” he breathed out, pulling me into a hug. I gasped and looked around, standing completely still. 

“Is this some kind of trap until security gets here?”

“She said you would! She said—” 

“I can kick your ass with this, you know.”

“She said that you would be just like her, but I thought—I mean, you just look like her, but you’re like like her—it’s just you never did—so I never thought—”

I pulled away from my dad and stared at him. “Who are you talking about? What do you mean?”

“Your mom,” he replied. He seemed a lot calmer than I thought. I, however, was very shocked. I fell back into a rolling chair at the desk and stared up at him.

“My mom?” I repeated in a whisper. Never, ever, has he ever mentioned her. If I ask a question, it’s either ignored or shot down immediately. 

“She was the same,” he said, nodding. “She was amazing. Powerful. I can’t believe you got it! I was afraid, I dunno, I would snuff it out.”

“She was like me?” I asked, looking down at my hands, which were the only parts left still glowing. Another energy pulse went off and I bent over. Dad knelt down and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him. He took a deep breath.

“I don’t know how to tell you this… Um,” he scratched his beard, “Your mom is an alien. Was an alien, sorry. She was… an alien.” I laughed. I started laughing really hard and then… I just stared up at him. 

“Sorry, it’s just… Why the hell would I take that seriously? Except for the fact…” 

“You know it’s true,” he said, his voice soft.

“Dad, it’s just that this is a lot to process,” I whispered.

“Aliens are real, and you weren’t born on Earth. She, uh, took you to some planet to be born, because she knew she’d die. Three years later, weird guys in weird costumes dropped you off at the front door and I’ve been stuck with you ever since. You’ve never, uh, done anything like that before. The, uh, sparks, and the glowing.” This was a lot to process from this man. But… part of me felt like I’d known it all along. Like, something inside of me was aware and in tune with that part of me, but how? How could I have known? I didn’t remember any strange planet… did I? A flash of an image passed through my mind’s eye. Glittering columns, a long golden hallway, a woman running down in with a dress flowing behind and around her. It felt like déjà vu, which wasn’t possible, since I’d never seen that place before in my life… I sighed, shook it off, and gave my dad a smirk.

“You’ve only seen part of it.” I looked around and held my hand out in the direction of a large tool trunk on the other side of the room. A drawer started to shake, then open, and a small silver object floated out of it. I flicked my wrist and sent it flying in my direction. Staring my dad dead in the eyes, I held my hand out and caught the object, a small Xacto knife, right between us. His jaw dropped. I rotated the knife in my hand and slashed it across my other palm. 

“Holy shit!” Dad screamed, trying to grab the knife from me. I tossed it, it flung back into the drawer, and I held my hand up for him. His eyes narrowed as he grabbed my arm and held my hand up. He stared at the blood trickling down my hand. It wasn’t dark red, like his blood—or anyone else’s for that matter—it was crystal clear and very shiny. It had the same consistency as human blood, though, as he found out. He touched it and frowned. “What the hell?”

“I guess… it’s not so surprising,” I muttered. 

“But… but you’ve bled before—”

“Yeah!” I replied, pulling my hand away. I summoned a small sliver of energy and pressed into my hand. For a second, it stung. I opened my hand to show Dad clear liquid pooling up, but not for long. It began to crawl closed again until it had disappeared. Totally healed. No more clear blood. “Yeah, up until a couple years ago, I had red blood. That’s—I dunno, that’s kind of unexplainable.” I laughed. “Maybe a witch put a spell on me!”

“Aliens may be real,” Dad muttered. “But witches?” I shrugged. 

“I just accidentally got a paper cut one day and noticed. It was different. I’ve been careful since then, though. I’ve been careful with everything. It feels like… I don’t know… like I’ve always been able to control it. For the most part, at least. When I found out you were missing, I almost couldn’t control the glow.” Dad just shook his head in disbelief and stood up. He sighed. 

“She looked just like you, too,” he continued. “You—you’re almost a perfect copy of her.”

“What?” I whispered, staring up at him.

“I mean, you’d think I wasn’t even involved in the process—” 

“I look just like her?” My eyes widened and I gasped. I looked up at him. That woman. I let out a sob and covered my mouth as my eyes watered.

“Del, what—”

“I see her every night,” I said, my voice hoarse suddenly. “I’ve always dreamt about her. I had no idea…” Dad let out a deep breath and hugged me again. I grabbed onto his shirt and smiled shakily. She felt so familiar. She’s your mom. That’s your mom! Mom was the one who brought me to Dad in that vision…

“Oh, God,” he muttered. “You’ve been having dreams of your dead alien mom. Great.” 

“There’s one more thing I want to show you,” I said as I stepped back. He frowned as I rose up from the ground and started floating to the top of the room. I grinned and laughed.

“Please tell me that’s not what you do when you go ‘swimming.’”

“Well…” I did a flip and pushed off the ceiling to the ground again.

“Holy shit,” he whispered. “I’m going to bed.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “But we are picking this back up. And Del… I’m proud of you. Proud of everything about you.”

I just looked up at him, amazed. He was proud of me. 

I climbed into bed that night and grinned up at the ceiling. 

“Mom,” I said to the empty room, “If you’re listening, if you’re watching… Thank you for helping me find Dad. I wish you would talk to me. I wish you didn’t die. I—I love you.”

I fell asleep talking to my mom, who I knew was still out there, watching me. Protecting me. Protecting us.


	7. Look Alive, Dummy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Delilah run a few tests on the Mark II.

“Hey!”

I woke up and looked up at my dad. 

“Come on,” he muttered, leaning over me. I groaned.

“What, dude?” I cried, pulling the covers to my chin. “Let me sleep…”

“Oh, please,” he groaned as he yanked the covers. “Get up! You wanna help me or not?” I sat up and looked at him. “Well? Come on!”

We ran downstairs to the first floor where Pepper was sipping coffee and reading something on her tablet. She gave us a look. We glanced at each other and flew down the stairs to the workshop as quickly as possible. 

“Don’t spend all day in there!” Pepper yelled. I leaped down the stairs, more like flew down them, beating Dad by almost ten steps. I grinned up at him.

“You’re gonna have to be quicker than that,” I challenged. He just rolled his eyes and unlocked the glass door to the workshop. “What are we doing?”

“We are…” He pulled up a few holo-screens and tossed them my way. I looked around at them as they surrounded me in the air. “Working on this.” The Mark II came up and beginning spinning around slowly. 

“Hmm,” I muttered as I tapped away at a few specs. “This could work. We need to adjust the alloy.”

“Adjust my alloy my ass.” He scoffed and got to work on other screens by his desk. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, adjust your alloy! I’m a flyer, remember? I know what’ll stay up there and what won’t. And this composition is just a fall waiting to happen!” I began tweaking his design. Dad looked up to see me messing with it and exclaimed loudly as he ran over.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you think you’re doing—?”

“Jarvis!” I cried, exasperated already. Not even five minutes working together, and we were already fighting. What the hell else did I expect?

“Nuh-uh, not for you!” Dad replied, locking a screen with the composition on it. “I’m an engineer, remember? I know what I’m doing.”

“Alright, fine,” I mumbled. “When you crash, it’s your own damn fault.” He walked back over to his station and glanced up at me. 

“Here, work on this,” he said, tossing a holo-screen near me. I rolled my eyes but got to work. 

I walked down to the lab with my cereal in hand. 

“Incoming call from Addy, ma’am,” Jarvis said from the speakers. I sighed. 

“Okay, take it.” The comm clicked and I heard some wind come in from the speakers.

“Del!” Addy exclaimed. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothing much, what’s up with you?” I asked, sitting down on the steps. 

“In gym class, we’re walking laps.” I laughed.

“And you called me?”

“Del, of course I called you! We’ve never started a school year without each other! It’s miserable here, dude. Are you sure you asked your dad about coming home?”

“Well…” I muttered, glancing around the stairway. 

“Well, what?”

“Well, I talked to him, but… I kind of asked to stay here and do homeschool,” I admitted, grimacing. It took a moment of total silence from Addy until…

“YOU WHAT?” she screamed. “Sorry—sorry—get a life, Terrence! Ugh! Del! What the hell do you mean you asked to stay in Malibu?”

“Okay, Addy, it’s really not that big of a deal, I had a conference with Wetherbee about it and everything, and he said it was fine. Dad was a little bit worried about letting me go back to New York, so we decided I would stay here. At least for the semester. We’re working on something really important, and—”  
“What could be more important than coming home and going back to normal?”

I wanted to tell her that it was the suit we were designing. A suit that could possibly change Dad’s company’s fate, and our own. The suit seemed to be Dad’s destiny, and I wasn’t doing too bad for myself, either. I had opened up a side project where I had remotely hooked myself up to sensors and was testing the levels of the energy I expelled. So far, the results were… interesting. But I couldn’t tell her any of it. 

“What are you doing?” Dad asked from the top of the steps, walking down. I stood up and let him walk by. 

“Talking to Addy.”

“Okay, well, come on,” he said, slapping my arm. “Flight test.”

“Okay,” I said, letting out a deep breath. “Hey, Addy, I gotta go… Dad and I are working on something.”

“Yeah,” she said, sounding dejected. “Have fun. We’re going inside now anyway.” I nodded. 

“Cool… Well, I’ll talk to you later. Maybe I’ll come up for a weekend.”

“If you don’t, I’ll kick your ass!” I laughed as we hung up. I headed into the lab and glanced around at the flight test area set up. A mat, a video camera, the robot arm holding a fire extinguisher, and our prototypes lying on the ground. I walked over and started getting Dad set up.

After months of what seemed like nonstop design and prototype building, we had two working boots and hand cradles. Two hopefully working boots and hand cradles. I finished adjusting the straps to Dad’s hand and backed away to the video camera. I checked the angle and gave him a thumbs up. 

Something beeped on a nearby screen. I turned to it to see a few updates were finished. I flipped it to Dad. He nodded. 

“That could work,” I said. He turned to the robot arm trying to assist him.

“Up. Screw it! Don’t even move.” He glanced up at me as the robot moved away. “Yeah, Del, I think we’re really getting onto something.” Then, to the robot, he muttered, “You are a tragedy.”

“I can only take so many weeks of you talking to that thing!” I cried. The robot whirred sadly. I just made a face. 

“He has a name,” Dad said, pressing a button on a boot that was set on the ground. It expanded for him to put his foot into. “Are you ready?”

“Are you ready?” I asked, watching him from the video camera. I leaned back. “Dad?”

“Mm?”

“Are you gonna sell this?”

“No, this is just for me.”

“Then—then how are you gonna make money if Stark Industries isn’t gonna sell weapons anymore? I thought you were gonna sell this—” 

“Del, come on,” he said, laughing and adjusting the boots. I just watched him, wondering if he was going to answer my question. He stood up and took a few steps back to the testing platform set up. “Okay! Let’s do this right. Start mark… half a meter, back, and… center. Dummy! Look alive, you’re on standby for fire safety.” The robot arm just twitched back and forth with the fire extinguisher in its grip. 

“What the hell am I good for?” I cried. 

“You’re on camera! Besides,” Dad said with a grin, “You seem to better at making the fires than putting them out.” I just rolled my eyes. He pointed to the camera. “Roll it!”

“Rolling,” I called, pressing the record button. I took a step away to watch him position himself just how he wanted. 

“Okay,” he said slowly. “Activate hand controls. We’re gonna start off nice and easy; we’re gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieves lift.” He positioned his palms firmly toward the ground. I pulled a monitor over and studied the levels. “In three, two, one…” The thrusters were activated, and Dad was shot back into the concrete wall behind him. He landed on the ground.

“Holy shit!” I cried. I flew over the equipment and platform and floated over him. “Are you okay?” Just as I was going to lean down to help him up, Dummy swung over and blasted him with the fire extinguisher. I jumped back and looked at the camera. Dad just coughed.

“Never better.” 

“I really hope we got that,” I said, laughing, as I pulled him up. “Back to the drawing board?”

“Back to something…” he muttered. He gave Dummy a look. We headed back to the monitors where Dad pulled the thrusters and boots off. He set them on a desk and pulled a monitor over. I threw some holo-screens up and we got to work. 

Dad was slightly surprised with some things I had to offer. He found out that one of my science fair projects was based off of certain objects’ abilities to fly in proportion to their densities and other factors. Everyone thought I just picked something easy, but I didn’t pick that topic because it was easy, I picked it because I wanted to figure out why I could fly. I didn’t have a workshop like this in New York; my workspace was a little crude and consisted mostly of holo-screens, but I seemed to have come to a semi-acceptable conclusion. That conclusion was thrown out the window when I found out I was half alien. Now, many of my conclusions from personal and science fair projects were thrown out. I was half alien, how the hell could I really understand what me fly or shoot energy other than that? But that wasn’t enough, I realized. Working on Dad’s suit, I realized I hadn’t truly become aware of my potential. Of my powers’ potential. 

Dad may have been surprised and looked impressed, but he never took any of my suggestions. I just had to adjust and work according to his specs. I wasn’t sure how well that would go, though.

Dad put his arm into a holo-prototype and moved it around. 

“Impressive,” I said as I poured some coffee into a Stark Industries mug. He glanced over at me and furrowed his eyebrows. 

“Are you… drinking coffee?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re sixteen!”

“Yeah.”

“When did you start drinking coffee?”

“When I was, like, thirteen.”

“Jesus,” Dad mumbled, looking back down at his prototype. I huffed.

“Maybe you would know that if you didn’t live across the country!” I blurted out. 

“I don’t know how many times I have to explain to you where my headquarters are and where your school is, which, by the way, is the best science and technology school in the country, so—” 

“Forget it, Dad,” I muttered. 

We spent the rest of the day working after our initial failed flight test. It only felt like a couple hours before Dad was ruffling my hair and telling me he was going to bed. I sat up from the boot I was tinkering with and looked at him, then the clock. It was a little past midnight. 

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll finish this then close it out.”

He just gave me a thumbs up as he headed out the door and up the stairs. I set the screwdriver down and spun around to go to the main monitors. 

“Jarvis, close out Mark Two.”

“Saving and closing out the project. Would you like me to open your unnamed project folder?” I was already putting the sensor tabs on my hands and neck. 

“Please,” I replied, bending down to stick the tabs on my feet. Jarvis brought a scan of me up on one of the monitors. I sat down and observed it. As the scan spun, the hands and feet glowed and pulsed bright purple while the rest of my body was covered in just a dull purple pulsing. “I wonder…” I stuck another tab onto my stomach and backed away. I cracked my neck.

“Okay, Jarvis, get ready,” I said.

“Ready.”

I took a deep breath and summoned a large orb of yellowish-greenish-whiteish energy that sparked and clouded around my hands. I raised it, clenched my fist, and watched it turn into a more concrete beam. I flicked my hands and it shot into the wall with a boom! I grinned as the wall smoldered and smoked in the spot it was hit. 

“You might find this interesting,” Jarvis said, throwing a holo-screen up next to me. I looked at it my jaw dropped. My hands and feet were still glowing bright purple, and now my torso was also. I rested my hand over the sensor stuck on my stomach. 

“So, when people say trust your gut… I don’t think this is what they mean, is it?” I laughed to myself and jumped over to the monitors. “Jarvis, I have an idea. Let’s make a Mark One of our own.” I began to work and sketch, all while Jarvis ran tests from previous trials. I had him running my energy sequence against sequences observed around the world from all kinds of facilities like military bases, NASA stations, and biochemistry labs. It had passed one in the morning when I heard a beep. I looked up. “Jarvis? Was that you?”

“This,” he said, opening a tab on the monitor. I stared at it, watching my energy sequence dance around almost in sync with another sequence. My eyes widened. Never before had something matched my energy sequence. I lined it up with nuclear explosions, underwater volcanoes, and electromagnetic fields, and nothing had done this. There were some overlaps, like where the unknown signature got bigger than my own, but it was unmistakably similar. 

“Jarvis, what is this?” I cried.

“A signature picked up from outside the atmosphere on March thirtieth, nineteen-ninety-two.”

“Whoa,” I muttered. “It’s cosmic energy—cosmic energy! How’s that sound, Jarvis?”

“Sounds like an apt title for your project.”

“I agree. I just can’t believe it…” I stared at the matching energies as Jarvis recorded it. “Jarvis, what if it’s my mom?”

“The chances are low, Miss Stark.”

“I know. But come on. Ninety-two? It would make sense—”

“Project updated.”

“Okay. Thanks.”


	8. That Darn Flight Stabilizer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Successful flight tests + Tony being mushy and actually acting like a father!

“Del?” Pepper asked, tilting to look down at me. I was sitting upside down on the couch, reading a textbook assignment for Honors American History. 

“Yes?” I replied, lowering the book. 

“How—” she laughed. “How do you not have a headache?”

Well, Pep, see, gravity has always affected me differently since I’m not even from this planet. “Oh, I dunno, I wasn’t really paying attention.” I sat up right and set the book in my lap. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, I just got back from the facilities. Have you and your dad done anything for dinner yet?”

“Ah, Pep, see, when you do homeschool and you and your dad work in the lab for months on end, time becomes irrelevant and structured meals become obsolete.”

She just stared at me. “I’ll just tell him no.” I nodded, stood up, stretched, and walked downstairs to the lab. Dad was working on an arm. I sat down at a monitor and observed specs for the arm he was messing with. 

“I dunno about that,” I said, pointing to the flexibility potential. “I don’t think you’ll get as much movement as you want.” He glanced up, squinted at what I was pointing at.

“That’s why it’s the potential,” he replied, looking back down. “Hand me that Phillips, would you?” I nodded and used an energy stream to lift the screwdriver on a cart next to me. I flicked it to Dad, who caught it. “Creepy, but useful.”

I grinned and turned around to the computers. Dad turned up the music and we worked for a bit, me throwing tools to him every once in a while, until Pepper walked in with a package and a cup of coffee in her hand. I glanced up at her from what I was coding. She turned the music down. 

“Hey, Pepper.”

“Hey…” she said, looking from me to Dad. She looked confused and concerned. 

“Up two,” Dad said. “Alright, set that!” I fixed the levels for his mechanic arm.

“I’ve been buzzing you, did you hear the intercom?”

“Yeah, everything’s—what?” Dad said, not looking up. 

“You buzzed?” I asked. 

“Obadiah’s upstairs.” Pepper walked between us and crossed her arms. A pit fell in my stomach and my mouth went dry. A monitor beeped and I pulled it close to me as it brought up a scan of my energy. This time, all of my body, even my hands and feet, were a dull purple, but right in the middle of me was a bright hot purple glow. I gulped and closed out the project, then quickly took the sensor off my stomach and taped it to the underside of the desk. Trust your gut…

“Great, great,” Dad muttered. 

“What would you like me to tell him?” Pepper asked.

“That I’ll be right up,” Dad responded as he picked his arm up in the arm part of the suit. He glanced at me as he raised it. “Del?”

“Hold on,” I mumbled as I changed a few things to level out. I looked up at him and gave him a thumbs up. “Good.”

“I thought you were done making weapons,” Pepper said, staring at the arm. 

“This is a flight stabilizer,” Dad told her, “it’s completely harmless.” He powered it up. Right as he did, the measures suddenly unbalanced out on my monitor. It was unstable. It shot out a blue-white energy shot and threw Dad back into the wall. Pepper jumped back and covered her ears. “Delilah!”

“Ah!” I cried. 

“I did not expect that.”

“Tony!” Pepper shrieked, running to him. 

“Sorry, it destabilized at the last second!” I cried.

“Well, it’s a flight stabilizer, it should maybe not destabilize!”

“I’m trying over here!”

“Ah…” Dad stood up and pulled his arm out of the sleeve then placed it on the stand. He pointed at me, then motioned to everything he had knocked over. “You… get to fix all this. I’ll be right back.” He headed upstairs with Pepper and I sighed. I glanced at Dummy, who was swinging idly by. 

“You heard the man. Clean this shit up.” I spun around and opened up my project. 

Dad threw the doors open and I jumped. I closed my project out quickly and turned around to see him carrying a slice of pizza in a napkin. He looked pissed. He slapped the pizza down on the desk. “Here. Dinner.”

“Thanks—wait, this is New York pizza—” 

“Obi went to the board of directors meeting,” Dad replied, sitting down at the desk, too. I spun a little to look at him as I ate my pizza. 

“And he just brought you back pizza? What the hell happened—”

“The board—”

“Wait, why weren’t you there?”

“—Told me to lay low. They’re trying to push me out.” He said it so casually, but I saw the anger and pain in his eyes. He wanted to make his company better and this is how they were repaying him?

“Wait, Dad, what does—”

“Come on, kid!” he cried, standing up. “Let’s get to work.”

“Dad…”

“Delilah!” I just sat there and watched as he turned back to the screens and began moving things around. I glanced down at my pizza, which suddenly looked a lot less appealing than earlier. That feeling was back in my core. Something was wrong. 

I sat at the video camera and computer monitors, ready to adjust the levels on the thrustors as needed. Dad was on the mat, messing with the left arm thrustor. It was like he had completely gotten over the news Obadiah brought him a couple days ago. I pressed play after he gave me a thumbs up. I turned the camera to me. 

“Day eleven, test thirty-seven, configuration two-point-oh,” I said, glancing at the screens. “Everything looks good. He hasn’t left the ground yet, but…” I positioned the camera back at Dad, who was looking down at Dummy. 

“For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire duty. If you douse me again and I’m not on fire, I’m donating you to a city college. And Delilah, if you give me wrong readings again, I’m putting you up for adoption!” He backed up and braced himself. “Alright. Nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with one percent thrust capacity.”

“And three… two… one…” I counted down. The thrustors activated and Dad pressed his palms down toward the ground as he slowly lifted off the ground. I grinned as he started to fly a little back and forth. Dummy followed his every move with the fire extinguisher. “Holy shit! It’s working!” He landed and grinned. 

“Okay!” Dad glanced at Dummy. “Please don’t follow me around with it, either, ‘cause I feel like I’m gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. And again! Delilah, let’s bring it up to two-point-five.”

“Okay,” I said, making the necessary changes on the monitor. “Three, two, one.” Dad pushed off the ground, a little higher and with more power. He started flying backwards towards all the cars. “There’s a little tension on that left leg!”

“Okay, this is where I don’t want to be!” he tried to push away. “Oh, not the cars, not the cars!” He started to push himself over a table. “Table!” Paper started flying everywhere. I rolled my eyes.

“Gentle! Don’t just swing your arms around—”

“I need to move!”

“Easy! Push forward!”

“I don’t want to go forward!”

“Exactly—ugh! I think I know what I’m talking about here!” I cried. Dad glanced at me, then started to clumsily make his way back to the mat following my instructions. 

“Could be worse. Could be worse! We’re fine… okay…” He was almost over the landing mat.

“Slowly tilt them straight down,” I instructed. He was directly over the mat, so he eased his hand thrustors to go straight down. “There you go. Land.” He turned the thrustors off and made a rocky landing. I cheered and he grinned as Dummy made his way over.

“No! Ah—ah—” Dummy just pointed down and made a low sad whirring sound. Dad looked up at me. “I can fly.” I laughed. He nodded and took deep breaths. “Del?”

“Yeah?” 

“Teach me.”

“Teach you?”

“How to fly. How to really fly.” I just stared at him. He wouldn’t listen to any of my suggestions, he wouldn’t take anything I said seriously, but now he wanted me to show him how to fly. I sighed and hopped down from the monitors. I stood next to him on the mat and looked up at him. 

“Okay,” I said. “Here we go. If you’re going to direct yourself with your hands and feet, you want to push in the opposite direction you actually want, okay? I usually direct myself with my torso, I guess, but I can…” I hopped off the mat and flew around a bit, using my hands and legs to guide me. I was a little wobbly, but I made a better landing than Dad had so far. “Like that. Okay, let’s do this.”

“Three, two, one,” Dad said. We lifted off together and I flew backwards. 

“Okay, you want to make sure you’re in control, but not too much control, because that’s when you start to lose control.” Dad just blinked at me with a blank face.

“What?” he cried. I swayed back and forth and did a flip.

“You have to…You have to go with the flow, but not too much,” I said as I spun upside down and planted my feet on the ceiling. I walked toward him. “Come on, dude! Let’s see what you got!” I dropped to his level and showed him how to move his arms. He flew up a little higher and we added some back and forward and side to side movements. “Just remember, you will yourself to go in the direction you want to go by pushing yourself in the other direction. Come on… there you go! It’s like a line dance.” 

“Ah, you ruined it!” Dad said with a laugh as he stopped moving around in a perfect square. He started going up and down, too.

“I think you’re getting it,” I told him, grinning. I floated in midair with my legs crossed over each other and just watched him fly around. He landed and panted a little. I landed, too, and grinned up at him. in that moment, he was just my dad and I was just his kid and we were having fun. It was so strange… and he made it stranger by putting his arms around me. I just stood still. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Hugging you.”

“Oh,” I said, putting my arms around him. “Uh-huh…”

“Del.”

“Yep?” I muttered, feeling too awkward to realize that my dad who never shows any kind of affection was hugging me. When was the last time he was the one that hugged me? Last Christmas? No, he went to Bali for that Christmas. Two Christmases ago?

“I love you, kid.” My eyes widened and I couldn’t help but grin. I hugged him tighter.

“I love you, too.”


	9. Freefalling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Delilah have a kind-of successful suit test. They also go to the charity event and get some... unsettling news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think now would be a good time to credit Marvel and all those people for these characters (except my own). And to credit them for the script that I'm using. LOL. Whatever. Enjoy this longish chapter.

A month after Dad and I started flying lessons, he walked down into the lab and tossed something at me. He missed, though, and it flew a few feet away from my head. I held my hand up and caught it in an energy bubble, then popped it toward me. I caught it and held it up. 

“Earpiece,” he said, walking toward the suit we had built. The entire thing was one piece and was just dying for a test run.

“What are we doing?” I asked hesitantly as I put the comm in my ear. Dad put the mask on. 

“Jarvis, are you there?” 

“At your service, sir,” I heard Jarvis say in my ear. I could hear what Dad heard in the suit. 

“Engage Heads Up Display.” Now I heard Dad in the ear comm. His voice was slightly metallic.

“Check.”

Dad looked around. “Import all preferences from home interface.”

“Will do, sir.”

“Whoa,” I whispered as the monitor showed what Dad saw as he looked around. I saw me sitting at the computers and waved at Dad. He waved back. 

“Alright, what do you say?” Dad asked.

“I have indeed been uploaded, sir,” Jarvis replied. “We’re online and ready.” I pulled up the stats from inside the suit and saw Jarvis, mine, and Dad’s voice levels, along with Dad’s vitals. It was working. Months of work and being in Malibu paying off. 

“Can we start the virtual walk-around?” Dad asked. I watched the monitor pull up a 3D virtual scan of the suit standing in the lab. 

“Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment,” Jarvis said as progress bars appeared on the monitor and began crawling forward. Dad positioned himself at the suit, flexing his fingers. 

“Jarvis, we need a check on control surfaces,” I called as I checked levels on the monitor. 

“As you wish.” I turned around to see the real suit lock around Dad and into itself. He looked badass inside the metal suit. “Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.”

“Uh, yeah, tell you what,” Dad said, “Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening on ground control.” My eyes widened.

“You want to take it for a spin now?” I cried. “Jarvis hasn’t finished control check!”

“Why not?” 

“Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations before an actual flight is—”

“Jarvis!” Dad snapped. “Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk. Besides, I’ll have Delilah to catch me.” I smirked and crossed my arms.

“Oh, really?”

“Ready?” Dad asked, turning toward the tunnel. I rolled my eyes and flew to him. “In three, two, one!” He powered up the thrustors and rose into the air. I grinned and jumped up into the air, then shot through the tunnel. I heard Dad flying behind me, screaming, “woohoo!” I joined him and grinned as I flew faster than I think I ever had. We shot out of the tunnel at the same time and flew over the house and the beach. I grinned and fell down toward the ocean. “Del!”

“Come on!” I screamed, freefalling toward the ocean. I positioned myself into a dive and pulled up at the last second, dragging my fingertips across the surface. “WAHOO!” I felt so free, flying with my dad behind me. Dad turned toward the beach and I flipped around to follow him. 

“Handles like a dream!” he cried. 

“Look!” I yelled, pointing ahead of us at approaching lights. “The boardwalk!” Dad lowered his altitude. 

“Alright, let’s see what this thing can do!” he shouted as he shot down toward it. I laughed and followed him toward the booths and rollercoasters. “What’s SR-Seventy-One’s record?”

“The altitude record for fixed wing flight is eighty-five thousand feet, sir,” Jarvis replied. Eighty-five thousand feet? Easy. For me. But I had a feeling Dad was about to see one reason why he should listen to me. 

“Records are made to be broken!” Dad yelled as he turned up. “Come on!”

“Oh, shit,” I muttered, following him. I kept a good distance from him. 

“What, Del? Can’t keep up?” he teased. I laughed. 

“Something like that!”

“Come on, slow poke!” I just rolled my eyes and thought, fuck it!

“Who do you think I am?” I cried, gaining on him. I shot past him and heard him cry out, but I had just caught sight of the moon. It was huge tonight. Was it huge, or was I just getting closer to it? I had never been so high up before. 

“Sir, there is a potential fatal buildup of ice occurring,” Jarvis announced. I felt it getting cold, too, but I wasn’t losing oxygen. Then, the thought hit me. Did I need oxygen? I threw a warm energy forcefield around me as I climbed higher. 

“Keep going!” Dad replied. “Del can’t win! Higher!” I rolled my eyes and glanced down at him. Ice was forming on the suit, alright. I sighed and pulled back into a freefall. I passed him. “Hey! What are you doing?”

“Catching you, dumbass!” I yelled back. Just then, his thrustors sputtered and went out and he started to scream. I rolled my eyes. “Here we go.” I threw a forcefield around the both of us as we plummeted toward the city. I could hear him still screaming, but his comm had gone out. I saw the ice begin to melt as we neared the city. “Come on, come on…” I reached for him. We were falling between buildings now. I groaned and grabbed Dad by the back and threw him up. Just then, his power came back on and he flew. He barely missed a few cars as he pulled up.

“Ahah!” I heard him cry. I pulled up to the top of the buildings and followed him as he stayed low. He pulled up and joined me at my altitude, laughing and panting. “Let’s head back.” 

“That was fun!” I cried. “Terrifying, but fun. And you owe me an I-told-you-so.”

“For what?”

“How many times did I tell you to adjust—”

“Alright, alright, we’ll look at when we get back!” he called. “What was that thing you did back there?” 

“Oh, this?” I asked, forming a forcefield over me. It was just a small dome that surrounded me. 

“Okay,” he muttered. “Forcefield. You can make forcefields. That might come in handy.” We neared the mansion, and he dove down to land on the second-story deck. I landed sitting on the roof. “Kill power.” He dropped… and then dropped through the deck. I gasped and flew down to the hole. I looked down through it to see him laying on top of some cars whose alarms were going off. He had even gone through the piano on the floor below the deck. I just laughed as Dummy leaned over him and let the fire extinguisher blow all over. 

“And that is a perfect ending to a great night,” I yelled down. Dad just groaned. “Goodnight, Dad. Goodnight, Dummy.” I continued laughing as I walked inside to get ready for bed. 

I was lying on the couch and was flipping through channels, not able to decide what to watch. I heard Dad running down the stairs and looked up to see him in a tux coming down. I sat up. 

“What are you doing?” I asked. 

“Firefighter’s Family Fund,” he said, landing and walking to me. He did a spin. “How do I look?”

“Great,” I told him, furrowing my eyebrows. 

“What?”

“Can I go?”

“Oh, uh,” he said, checking his watch. “How fast can you get ready?” I grinned and flew past him and up the stairs to my bedroom, showing him just how fast I could get ready.

I flew down the stairs and landed by Dad. He looked me up and down. 

“Where’d you get that?” he asked, frowning at the long purple dress I had on.

“No idea. I think the Teen Vogue shoot,” I said, putting my hands in the pockets. “But it has pockets!” 

“Cool,” he replied, obviously not impressed with my pockets. “Come on.” We went downstairs to the garage and hopped into one of the surviving convertible cars from his crash last night. It wasn’t long until we were on the California highways, the wind blowing my hair everywhere. I had never been to the Firefighters Family Fund, but it was one of the big Stark events everywhere. I always wanted to go, but usually wasn’t allowed to. We pulled up to the venue and I looked up at all the reporters on the sides of the red carpet taking pictures and getting interviews from the guests. Dad tossed the keys to the valet dude and we got out of the car. I paused at the edge of the carpet leading up the steps.

“Man. Addy and I always said our first time on the red carpet would be together… I didn’t know there was a red carpet! I guess I can just not tell her…” A few cameras noticed us and started taking flash pictures. I sighed. “Never mind. Hey, there’s Obi!” We started walking up the stairs to Obadiah. I ignored the slight unease I felt. 

I also hadn’t been around so many people in a while. I could hear everyone’s conversations clear as day as if they were standing next to me, even the people all the way up at the doors. I took a deep breath and tried to focus. Hearts beating everywhere, emotions varying, it was all slightly overwhelming.

“Hey, Tony, remember me?” some chick asked as we passed her. 

“Sure don’t,” Dad said. I punched his arm.

“Asshole!”

“Delilah—You look great Hef,” Dad told some really old man as he patted his shoulder. Hef turned around, confused. 

“Delilah Stark!” a reporter cried. I glanced over. “Delilah, who are you wearing?” Cameras flashed in my direction. 

“Oh, uh, I’m not sure,” I said. “But look—!” I shoved my hands in the pockets. “It has pockets!”

“Keep up, kid,” Dad groaned as he grabbed my arm and pulled me up to him. 

“I’m coming!” We walked up to Obadiah, who saw us. His face fell immediately, but he covered it up quickly with a laugh. No one noticed. But I caught it. And it made my stomach twist. I needed to stop doing that. I trusted Uncle Obi, I loved him. Why would my gut be telling me otherwise?

“What’s the world coming to when a guy’s gotta crash his own party?” Dad asked, laughing with Obadiah. I just chuckled forcedly. 

“Look at you, look at both of you! What a surprise,” Obadiah cried. He grinned down at me. “The youngest and prettiest Stark. Finally, she comes to one of these!”

“That’s what I said!” I exclaimed as Obadiah hugged me. Dad just patted Obadiah’s arm.

“I’ll see you inside.”

“Uh, hey, listen!” Obadiah called, pulling Dad back. “Take it slow, alright? I think I got the board right where we want them.” We. Right where we want them. But Dad and Uncle Obi didn’t want them in the same place… 

“You got it, just cabin fever!” Dad replied. “I’ll just be a minute!” 

More reporters started calling my name and I turned around to grin at them. 

“Del!” Dad called to me. 

“I’ll just be a minute!” I replied. He waved his hand and headed up the stairs.

“Delilah, who are you wearing?”

“Why do you people always ask that? How am I even supposed to know?”

“Uh, the tag?”

“Oh,” I said, bending to grip the back of my dress. “Well, I can’t see. Can you check?”

“Um,” she just replied. “You want me to—?”

“Delilah!” Obadiah boomed. The reporters backed up and took a few pictures. “Come here!”

“Hey, look!” I called to the reporters as I backed over to Obadiah. “Pockets!” They laughed and took more pictures. I’d hate to have to go through all of those pictures after the event. They’ve all got to have at least three thousand pictures, probably all of the same five people! “Hey, Uncle Obi.”

“Listen,” he said, putting his arm me and lowering his voice. “Just keep smiling, okay? For the pictures. But listen, it’s probably best if you keep a low profile and farther away from the press. We don’t want another Second and Seventy-Third incident, do we?” I just gave the cameras a fake smile as I thought about the time Addy and I got chased by the press in the Upper East Side. Except that time, Addy and her boyfriend had just broken up and we literally set the press up to chase us for fun. Why would that happen here? I just nodded and looked up at him. 

“Obadiah!” Dad yelled, running down the steps. I heard Obadiah groan softly as I pulled away from him. I stared at Obadiah. What was his problem? It was like he wasn’t happy that Dad was back. Dad pulled Obadiah aside, away from everyone and all the reporters. I watched them and focused in on their voices. Obadiah motioned for the reporters to stay away. I squinted my eyes and watched carefully. Obadiah almost pushed the reporters away. 

“Have you seen these pictures? Huh?” Dad hissed, holding something in his hand out. Black and white photos. It looked like a destroyed city and weapons, but it was hard to tell from where I was. 

“Tony, Tony—”

“What’s going on in Gulmira?” Dad demanded. My eyes widened. Gulmira. No way. 

“You can’t afford to be this naïve,” Obadiah snapped. He put his arm around Dad and shifted them. I made eye contact with Dad, who frowned at me as he pushed away from Obadiah’s arm.

“You know, I was naïve before, when they said, ‘here’s the line! We don’t cross it. This is how we do business.’ If we’re double dealing under the table—” Obadiah looked down and away— “Are we?” A rogue reporter ran over to them.

“Tony, your picture, please!” he called. Obadiah smiled tightly at the reporter.

“Let’s take a picture! Come on, picture time!” Obadiah and Dad put their arms around each other and smiled. Dad looked incredibly uncomfortable, though. “Tony. Who do you think locked you out?”

“Delilah, you too!” a reporter called out, motioning for me to join Dad and Obadiah. I slowly walked over. 

“I was the one who filed the injunction against you,” Obadiah continued. Dad just froze, staring at the camera. “It was the only way I could protect you. And Delilah, of course.” I met them and he put his arm around me. The three of us smiled for the camera. 

“What about me?” I asked innocently.

“Nothing, sweetie, just letting your dad know how much I care about you two,” Obadiah said, kissing the top of my head. He patted our backs and headed down the stairs to his car. I just looked at Dad. 

“Gulmira,” I whispered.

“How did you—Never mind. You heard.”

“Every word.” I glanced around. “Dad, there’s something really bad going on beyond us. I can feel it.” He just shook his head and took me by the arm.

“Come on, we’re going home.”


	10. Infiltration: Part One

I gasped awake to a crashing sound from downstairs. “Jesus Christ, Dad!” I cried as I jumped out of bed and threw on some real clothes. ‘Real clothes’ is a loose term, I thought, as I switched my Midtown t shirt for an AC-DC shirt, bra, and lounge pants. I raced downstairs, past broken windows, and into the lab. I had to float over the broken glass on the ground. Dad was having the robots come up from the mat and put the suit on. This was the Mark III, a much sleeker red and yellow model than the Mark II. And this one had the correct specs to avoid the icing. 

“What are you doing?” I asked, panting. 

“Taking down the Ten Rings. And, eventually, Obadiah.” I let out an uneasy breath. 

“I just can’t believe… Okay, I mean what are you doing at this exact moment!” Dad just gave me a look. I think he wanted to ask me if I was stupid. I crossed my arms and sighed. “Gulmira. Then I’m coming, too.”

“Hell no!” Dad stepped away from the robots as he was now completely encased by the suit. He set the helmet on. “It’s too dangerous for you, Del.” 

“Uh, hello!” I cried, lighting a yellowish-greenish fire in my palm. 

“You don’t have a suit,” he said. 

“What do I need one for?” I asked, throwing a forcefield up. “Here, shoot me, see!” Dad just groaned.

“No, Del, they can’t know who you are!”

“Mm,” I said, plopping down into the chair at the desk. “Fair point. Jarvis, turn on auditory and visual remote interface.”

“Up and running,” Jarvis said, showing me everything Dad was seeing in the suit. I turned on the comm on the monitor. 

“Okay,” I said, turning to Dad. “Okay, we’re doing this.” He nodded.

“Wish me luck.”

“Good—” I started, but he was shooting through the tunnel before I finished. I sighed and turned back to the screens. “My God. Jarvis, Dad, are we live?”

“Live.”

“We’re a go, kid.” 

“Great,” I said, pressing the mute key. 

“Miss Stark, was that intentional?”

“Sure was,” I replied. “Jarvis, open a new folder in my workspace.”

“Opening a new project in Delilah’s Folder Don’t Touch My Shit Dad.” A few new holo-screens popped up around me. 

“Thank you,” I told the robot butler. “I don’t have a suit, he said. Not yet.” I got to work as Dad flew across the world. 

“Delilah,” Jarvis finally said. “You might want to see this. Your father is landing.” I looked up to see Dad coming in hot into a village full of people gathered around with guns and other people cowering and running. 

“Unmute,” I said. “What’s going on, Dad?” Gunfire went off.

“Oh, you know, just getting shot at,” he replied, walking toward the insurgent shooting him. He punched the man, sending him flying. My jaw dropped. Dad turned and started blasting others. 

“On your six!” I cried. Dad whirled around and blasted a guy about to shoot him. He turned again, blasters held up, but he faced a group of innocent civilians being held at gunpoint by the terrorists. Everyone was screaming. Dad just lowered his hand blasters. I saw the interface identify the terrorists. His shoulder missiles opened and shot at them, knocking them all down. A little boy ran to his dad. Dad just walked past them, following a man who had run. He punched through a wall, grabbed the man on the other side, and threw him back out into the street. The refugees gathered around.

“He’s all yours,” Dad told them, flying away. 

“Whoa,” I muttered. “I’m gonna have to try that.”

“You know I was talking to you for almost twenty whole minutes before I realized you muted me?” Dad said. I just laughed.

“Speaking of…” I muted him again and had Jarvis pull up what I was working on again. “I think we’re onto something, Jarvis. Bring up full rendering.” He pulled it up. “Let’s play with the design, shall we? And materials. I want the best synthetics. Waterproof, iceproof, fireproof.” I looked at the suit I had designed to allow energy to flow clearly through my body from my gut to my hands and feet. 

“I can whip something up,” Jarvis replied. 

“Thanks.” I played around with a few color schemes. “What do you think of this?” I spun the suit to see it in a deep purple with lighter purple lines running through the major energy channels. 

“I see you and your father have the same skewed interpretation of the word ‘discretion.’”

“Make it happen?” I just laughed at Jarvis and the phone started ringing in the suit. I glanced at the caller ID. “Jarvis—Rhodey—unmute!”

“Hello?” Dad answered the phone. 

“Tony!”

“Who’s this?” I rolled my eyes as Jarvis began uploading my files. 

“It’s Rhodes,” Rhodey replied. 

“Sorry, hello?”

“I said, it’s Rhodes!”

“Speak up please?”

“What in the hell is that noise?” Rhodey cried, probably referring to the wind attacking my father as he flew away from that total illegal drop in. 

“Oh, yeah,” Dad replied, “I’m driving with the top down.” I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I watched him fly through the clouds. 

“Yeah, well, I need your help!”

“It’s funny how that works, huh?” Dad snapped, sounding a little bitter. Whatever the best friends were going through, I had no idea, and probably didn’t want anything to do with it.

“Yeah, speaking of funny, we’ve got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks from where you were being held captive,” Rhodey shot back. I pulled up recent news outlets and started searching. 

“How is that funny?” I muttered. 

“Well, that’s a hot spot—” Dad started.

“Is that—was that Del? She with you? Take me off speaker, Tony—”

“She’s fine, Del, let the grown-ups talk.”

“Sure, when they start acting like grown-ups.”

“Why can I hear her clear as day and you’re all… windy?” Rhodey demanded. 

“Listen, it sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you, huh?” Dad teased.

“Why do you sound out of breath, Tony?”

“I’m not,” Dad said quickly. “I was just jogging in the canyon.”

“I thought you were driving.”

“Right, I was driving. To the canyon. Where I’m going to… jog.”

“Dad,” I moaned, facepalming. 

“Is Delilah okay?” Rhodey asked. He did not sound impressed.

“Peachy,” I replied.

“You sure you don’t have any tech in that area I should know about?”

“In the canyon?” I offered innocently.

“Nope!” Dad paused. “Would you hang up already?”

“Me?” I cried. “I hear everything you hear anyway, dumbass!” Both men scolded me. 

“Okay, good, ‘cause I’m staring at one right now, and it’s about to be blown to kingdom come.” I sucked my breath in and muted myself quickly.

“Jarvis, check out those military cameras he’s got.”

“Right away.” I unmuted myself as a monitor beeped. My eyes widened as I saw something heading toward Dad at an alarming rate. He dodged, deflected, and shot back at them. 

“Del!” he cried in a warning tone.

“Sorry, I didn’t—”

“Hello?” Rhodey called.

“Hi, Rhodey, it’s me!” Dad responded.

“It’s who?” Rhodey joked back. 

“I’m sorry, it is me! You asked. What you were asking about is me!” Dad cried, his voice sounding slightly panicked.

“No, see, this isn’t a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone! You understand that?” Rhodey demanded. More missiles and larger aircraft popped onto the radar and closed in on Dad’s suit.

“This is not a piece of equipment!” Dad shouted. I switched from looking at Dad’s view to the military cameras to the radar. My heart was racing. “I’m in it! It’s a suit! It’s me!” I watched as two planes closed in on Dad and he flew around them and shot at them. He collided with a plane and I yelped as he rolled and rolled but stabilized. One of the pilots had to eject.

“You’ve been reengaged,” Jarvis told Dad.

“Keep going!” Dad cried. I winced. The other pilot went down but his chute got stuck. Dad dove after him and yanked the chute open, so the man caught the wind. I breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Tony?” Rhodey said finally. “You still there?”

“Hey, thanks,” Dad hissed. 

“Oh, my God, you crazy son of a bitch! You owe me a plane, you know that, right?” 

“Well, technically he hit me. Now are you going to come by and see what we’re working on?” Dad asked.

“No, no, no,” Rhodey cried. “The less I know the better! Now, what am I supposed to tell the press?”

“Training exercise,” Dad suggested. “Isn’t that the usual BS?”

“It’s not that simple,” Rhodey grumbled. 

“Whatever,” Dad said. “Good luck, Colonel.” They hung up and I muted Dad as he made his way home. I laid my head on the desk.

“Jarvis?” I moaned. “Wake me up when we’re at a hundred percent. Or, I dunno, I guess if Dad dies.”

“Of course,” Jarvis replied. “Very optimistic.”

“Thanks,” I muttered as I felt myself already begin to fall asleep. 

I jumped awake to a whooshing rushing noise. Dad flew in from the tunnel and landed on the mat. I glanced at my project, which was at a measly seventy-eight percent uploaded, and closed it from the monitor. 

“Hey,” Dad said.

“Hey…” He landed and the arms came out from the mat to take the suit. I jumped up to sit criss-cross on the desk. I laughed as the robots kept bumping into Dad and making him cry out. 

“It is a tight fit, sir,” Jarvis said.

“Hey! Ah!”

“Sir, the more you struggle the more this is going to hurt.”

“Be gentle!” Dad cried. “This is my first time.” I just laughed and rolled my eyes. “I designed this to come off, so—ah! Hey!”

“Well,” I said, “I think that went smoothly!”

“I really should be able to…” He looked up at me. “Huh? Oh, yeah! Yeah, I think Rhodey—OW!”

“Please try not to move, sir,” Jarvis said.

“What, Rhodey’s gonna cover up for your meddling—”

“Our meddling!”

Just then, the door opened, and Pepper walked in. Dad and I turned to look at her.

“Uh-oh,” I muttered. 

“Ah!” Dad cried. He froze, being lifted midair by the robots. 

“What’s going on here?” Pepper shrieked. 

“Let’s face it, this is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing,” Dad replied. I just made a face as Pepper gasped.

“Are those bullet holes?” 

“Uh, I can explain?”

“Please do!” Pepper begged frantically. 

“Yes!” I grinned. “I’d love to see this!” They both turned around and gave me exhausted looks. I turned to the computers. “Yeah, yeah, I’m just gonna—I’m just gonna do this. Yeah.” 

I stood at the desk and admired my finished product. It was only my first prototype, but it would do. And it was going to be badass. I ran my hands over the pitch-black fabric of the mask. I grinned. Pepper walked in and Dad looked up at her. I shoved the mask in the pocket of my jeans.

“Hey, you busy?” he asked her. “You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You’re going to hack into the mainframe and you’re going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests.” He handed her a small USB stick. “This is a lock chip. This will get you in. it’s probably under executive files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you’ll need to look for the lowest numeric heading.” Pepper just gave him an incredulous look. 

“And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?”

“Same drill. They’ve been dealing under the table and I’m going to stop them. I’m going to find my weapons and destroy them.” I stared at my dad, who was standing with an air of determination I had never seen on him. 

“Tony,” Pepper scoffed, “You know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you’re going to start all of this again!”

“There is nothing except this! There’s no act opening, there is no benefit, there is nothing to sign!” Dad boomed, glancing away. “There is the next mission and nothing else!” I looked from my dad to Pepper. She nodded and sighed.

“Is that so? Well, then, I quit.” She dropped her folder and the stick Dad gave her and she turned around to leave. 

“You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction!” Dad cried. Pepper turned and looked at him. “And now that I’m trying to protect the people that I put in harm’s way, you’re going to walk out?”

“You’re going to kill yourself, Tony!” Pepper shouted, walking to him. “I’m not going to be a part of it!”

“I shouldn’t be alive,” Dad said. Pepper and I both froze and stared at him. “Unless it was for a reason. I’m not crazy, Pepper. Del is not crazy!” They both glanced at me and I made a face. “I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it’s right.” Pepper sighed and picked up the things she dropped.

“You’re all I have, too, you know.” She walked out. I stared at Dad.

“Go with her,” Dad said. I looked up. 

“Me?”

“Go!”

I nodded and ran after Pepper.


	11. Infiltration: Part Two

My job was simple: sit and wait for Pepper since Dad insisted I come. I sat on the chairs by the stairs, swinging my legs and bobbing my head back and forth. I froze when I saw Obadiah walk in. he was heading to the stairs. I jumped up and ran to him.

“Hey, Obi!” I jumped in front of him and he smiled. “Whatcha doin’ here?” He just laughed. 

“Delilah, what a… present… surprise! I work here. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, just came with Pep to pick some stuff up for Dad, and technically, you don’t work here, you work in New York—”

“Miss Potts is here?” he asked. “In your dad’s office?”

“No—uh—” I stammered. “She’s busy!”

“Busy?”

“Yeah. Did you have a meeting or something here?”

“No, I came to check in on some scientists in one of the other buildings.” I frowned. What scientists?

“What are the scientists—?” Obadiah pushed past me and patted my shoulder. 

“I should go check on Miss Potts.”

“I think she’s fine!” I breathed out. Obadiah just nodded and headed up the stairs. “Shit.” I spun around and saw a familiar face walking in the door. “Oh, no fucking way…” Agent Coulson walked in and sat down just at where I was sitting before Obadiah walked in. I casually walked over and sat down next to him. He glanced at me and smiled. I smiled back. 

“Delilah, right?” he asked.

“Yeah. Agent Coulson? With, uh—”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter.”

“—SHIELD.” Coulson looked at me and nodded. “Waiting on someone?”

“Miss Potts.”

“Oh, great,” I mumbled. “Me too.” We sat there in awkward silence for a bit until finally I glanced up and saw Pepper rushing down the stairs.

“Miss Potts?” Coulson said as she approached us. “We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?”

“Nope! Right now. Come with me.” 

“Right now?” Coulson and I stood up and ran after Pepper. 

“Yep, right now, we’re going to have it right now! Yeah, walk with me! Come on, Delilah,” she called as we followed her. I glanced behind us to see Obadiah watching us leave. 

“Shit!”

“Okay,” Coulson said.

“I’m going to give you the meeting of your life! Your office.” We neared the doors, and I caught a glimpse of the arc reactor in the next building over. A bunch of men in lab coats were standing around it. I gasped. That room was for decoration. It was something Dad was showing off—why would Obadiah have men actually trying to work on it? Unless… unless he knew about the arc reactor. And wanted it for himself.

“Hey, Pep!” I caught up with her. “I’m gonna check something out, okay?”

“No way, you’re not leaving—”

“Hey, I know what I’m doing!” She just gave me a look. “Pepper. Trust me?”

“Fine. Be careful, Delilah!”

“I will!” I ran out the doors and away to the side of the other building. I pulled the black mask out of my jeans and put it on like a headband around my neck. I yanked it up and over like a hood and let my eyes adjust to the interface, not too different from the one Dad installed in the Mark III. “Jarvis.” I grinned. 

“Hello, Miss Stark,” Jarvis replied in my ears. “The suit looks ready to integrate. Would you like to try it on?”

“Not right now, buddy,” I said, looking around. “I need to get inside the arc reactor building without anyone seeing. I need to see what Obadiah is up to…”

“Calculating alternate routes,” Jarvis said, pulling up a map of the compound. Lines drew around it. I furrowed my eyebrows.

“What’s that dot?”

“A vertical path.” I looked up and grinned. 

“Good idea, Jarvis.” I leaped up and flew to the roof of the building. I followed the map Jarvis laid out to the grate, which I pulled off with a flick of my wrist and an energy field. I slipped into it and flew into the main room. I landed on the rafters and crouched down. I whispered to Jarvis. “Jarvis, can you record this?”

“With pleasure.” I saw a red dot appear at the top right of the interface. I squinted and the interface zoomed in. 

“Whoa!” I looked around. “Cool.” The doors burst open and Obadiah stormed in. 

“Absolutely,” a scientist said into the phone he was on. He saw Obadiah walk in and jumped. “I’m gonna have to call you back!” He shoved the phone into the receiver. Other scientists looked down at their clipboard and started moving faster than they were before Obadiah walked in. The scientist on the phone followed Obadiah. “Uh, Mr. Stane? Sir, we’ve explored what you’ve asked us, and it seems as though there’s a little hiccup. Actually, um—”

“A hiccup?” Obadiah repeated, putting his hands on his hips. 

“Yes, to power the suit… Sir, the technology actually doesn’t exist. So, it’s, it’s—” Obadiah scoffed and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. So, he was after the arc reactor. And that man mentioned a suit. Do they have a suit? Oh, God, please don’t let them have a suit. That was our thing!

“Wait, wait, wait,” Obadiah said. “The technology?” He put his arm around the guy and motioned up to the arc reactor. “William, here is the technology! I’ve asked you to simply make it smaller!” A few of the scientists started leaving. 

“Okay, sir, and that’s what we’re trying to do, but honestly, it’s impossible,” William said, sounding frustrated. Obadiah walked away and shook his head, then turned back to the man.

“TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!” he shouted as he approached William. I sighed. I had never seen this side of Obadiah. I didn’t even know he had this side. But now, I was glad we were going to destroy him. He betrayed my dad, and he betrayed me. He was so going down. Obadiah stood there with his finger on the poor scientist’s chest. 

“Well, I’m sorry,” William replied calmly. “I’m not Tony Stark.” I grinned. Obadiah stormed out. 

“Miss Stark? Miss Potts on the line,” Jarvis said. William was shaking as he walked out. 

“Yeah, okay, put her through,” I told him as I hooked my knees on the rafter and hung upside down. “Quit recording.” The red dot disappeared. 

“Delilah!” Pepper said.

“Hey, Pepper,” I answered. “Look, I know Obi’s up to something, but—”

“You need to get out of the compound now! He ordered the hit on your father!” 

“The—the hit?” I repeated, jumping down and landing at the base of the arc reactor. “What—?”

“The attack! The abduction! In Gulmira!” I stared up at the arc reactor as I began to breathe shakily. 

“No, no way… He’s up to something, but he couldn’t… There’s no way he would—” 

“He would and he did! Shit—I shouldn’t have let you go—go find Happy, I left him there for you! You have to get out of there right now and find your father! Before—before—”

“Before Obadiah finds him and finishes the job,” I whispered.

“I’m so sorry, Delilah. I know how scared you must be, but I’m with Agent Coulson and he’s going to help! Just go to your dad and stay safe!”

“Yeah, you too, Pep.” I hung up and shook my head as I pulled my mask off. I was still staring up at the arc reactor. “Scared? Who the fuck is scared? I’ll kick his ass—” I turned around and right into someone. I looked up at Obadiah, who was smiling at me. 

“Delilah.” 

“Obi—” Before I could say anything else, he held up a small device and pressed a button on it. I gasped and fell back as a terrible high-pitched noise started. I covered my ears. “OW!” 

“Sh, sh,” Obi whispered, but I pushed him off. He growled and grabbed me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder. “Don’t fight it, kid. I’m sorry it had to be this way.” I felt myself starting to go into paralysis. I gasped as I lost consciousness.


	12. Arc Reactor Showdown

I woke up with a pounding headache on a couch in Obadiah’s office. I sat up and groaned. 

“Fuck,” I whispered. I jumped up and went to the window. “Shit—Jarvis—Ah!” I pulled the mask on over my head and eyes. “Jarvis!”

“Miss Stark?”

“Call Dad!” He paused.

“Your father is unavailable. So is Miss Potts, I’m afraid.”

“Shit,” I whispered. “Well, bud, it’s just you and me.”

“How about that try-on?”

“How about it indeed,” I replied, holding my arms out. I flexed my arms and watched as my clothes burned away and were replaced by a long sleeve purple suit that cut off at my ankles and wrists. “Huh. Jarvis, tell me my clothes didn’t just, like, get totally blown off?”

“It seems they did, due to the energy you release,” he replied. 

“Okay, so… we’ll work on that,” I muttered as I walked to the large windows. I looked down to see Pepper running through the compound. My jaw dropped. “Obadiah has to be stopped. Now!” I took a couple steps back, ran into the window—actually, I phased through it, kind of on accident—and flew down to Pepper. I ran alongside her and she looked at me wildly. She stopped and panted. 

“What—?” 

“Don’t ask—” 

Her eyes widened and she made a strangled noise. “Delilah?”

“Yeah!”

“Obadiah, he’s gone insane!” I noticed her Bluetooth and nodded.

“Patch me in!” 

“I know!” Dad replied in my ears. “Listen, you better get out of there. What the hell is Delilah doing down there—?”

“He built a suit!” 

“I’m not going anywhere, Dad,” I cried.

“Oh, Jesus, Tony, if only you could see her…” Pepper was staring at me. I looked toward the building she ran out of and heard rumbling. 

“Get of there right now!” Dad shouted at us. 

“Wait, where are you—?” I faltered as a massive suit burst through the concrete of the building. I stared up at it. “The Mark One. That’s not an Iron Man, that’s an Iron Monger…” I looked into the chest. It was glowing blue. Rage flowed through me and I ignited energy into my fists. Obadiah stood and faced us.   
“Delilah, what are you wearing?” 

“Really?” I cried, motioning to Obadiah. “Now?”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Obadiah boomed.

Pepper and I backed up. 

“Your services are no longer required,” Obadiah said as he swung at Pepper, but I jumped in front of her and summoned energy blasts in my hands. 

“NO!” I screamed, pushing him back.

“STANE!” I heard from my earpiece and from above me. I looked up to see Dad coming in from the sky. Obadiah raised his arm cannons and shot at Dad, but Dad blew into him. They flew through the concrete and into another building, then through that building. 

“Oh, my God,” Pepper breathed out, putting a hand on my shoulder. She turned me to her and shook me. “WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?”

“What the hell is happening is they probably just hit the freeway!” I cried, pulling away. “Dad built a supersuit, Obadiah wanted it… Oh, shit, if Obi has the Mark One and the arc reactor—” 

“No, not that, I know that! I mean you!” She grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me.

“Oh,” I said, dipping away from her and floating up. She stared at me. “Well, we can talk about it later, you know, but my mom was an alien.”

“I—what,” was all she could get out.

“I need to help him! Pepper, get to safety!” I shouted as I flew the hole they left in the building. I pulled up as I came out over the freeway and looked around at the pile up and damaged cars. I zeroed in on Obadiah holding up a sedan over his head, aiming it at my dad. 

“A woman and four children in that car,” Jarvis said.

“Oh, no,” I muttered. I flew in as the car went flying. I caught it in an energy field and let it down gently on the other side of the pile up. “Sorry!” I called to them. I whirled back around and flew to my dad.

“What the hell are you doing?” he cried.

“Helping!”

“What are you wearing?”

“You make your suit, I make mine!”

“We literally made this suit together! How did you have time to—?”

“Less talky more fighty big metal suit!” I yelled as Obadiah plowed into Dad. I groaned and flew after them. Dad landed on a bus. I blasted Obadiah with large energy balls. 

“I’m a horrible influence,” Dad moaned as Obadiah turned around to face me. 

“What is that?” he screamed. 

“It’s me, Obadiah!” I shouted, landing in front of him. “You tried to kill my father, then you tried to kill me!”

“Delilah?” he stammered.

“Hell yeah,” I replied, summoning a massive ball of energy. I drop kicked it at him and it hit him square in the chest, sending him flying back. He caught himself, though, and skidded into the concrete of the freeway.

“I didn’t try to kill you, just—” I blasted him again and this time it came out as a stream. I grinned and whooped as it just kept coming. I let up and right as I did, he got up and punched me right into a car. I gasped and groaned.

“Motherfucker!” I screamed. “Ah! That shit hurt! Oh, Jesus, is this what we’re in for?” I grunted as I stood up. Obadiah walked over to Dad and picked him up. I braced myself.

“For thirty years I’ve been holding you up!” Obadiah screamed as he threw Dad into the ground. I took a deep breath as Obadiah put his foot on Dad’s chest. “I built this company from nothing!” He stomped on him. I shook off the punch and the impact and summoned energy. I looked down to see my whole body glowing. 

“Whoa,” I whispered as I sparked. “Hell yeah.”

“Nothing is gonna stand in my way!” Obadiah bent down and picked Dad up. 

“Oh, really?” I called as I approached them. Obadiah glanced at me and threw Dad back into the bus. “DAD! Oh, that’s it, Uncle Obi! You know what?” I gave him my best war cry and flew right into him. I grabbed the helmet and threw energy into him. He jolted and stopped moving for a moment. “You know what?” I flew in front of the suit. “Fuck you!” I heard him scream. The arm moved suddenly, and he grabbed me, the hand of the suit completely clamping around my waist. I created a forcefield around me which knocked off parts of the suit. I flew back and shot blasts at him again. 

“You are a pest!” Obadiah shouted as he shot me. I saw it in slow motion, coming right at me, and I raised my arms to block it. As I raised my arms, a circular shield formed around my whole front. I looked around at it. 

“That’s… new,” I whispered. “I like it.” I tossed the shield around and it spun all around as I kept catching it. “Oh!” I held it like a Frisbee and threw it. It spun right into Obadiah’s head. I grinned, but other than losing his balance a little, he was unaffected. He aimed a rocket at Dad who was still collapsed at the bus. “NO!” I screamed. I ran at him as the rocket flew into Dad, knocking him into the air. I flew up and caught him by the arms. His boosters turned on and he flew up beside me. 

“Hey, kid,” he said, sounding weaker than earlier. 

“Impressive!” Obadiah yelled at us as we floated above him. “You’ve upgraded your armor! I’ve made some upgrades of my own!” He picked his feet up one at a time and rockets ignited under them. 

“It appears that his suit can fly,” Jarvis said.

“No shit,” I muttered.

“Duly noted,” Dad replied. “Take me to maximum altitude.” I grabbed Dad by the arm.

“I know what you’re thinking, but—”

“With only fifteen percent power, the odds of reaching that altitude—”

“I know the odds!” Dad snapped. “Do it!” He shot up. I groaned and followed him. 

“Let me lead him! You can’t make it!” I cried.

“Del, you shouldn’t even be here! Besides, it’s me after. And… I know you’ll catch me.” He shot up faster. I sighed and followed, looking down at Obadiah who was climbing with us.

“Thirteen percent power, sir,” Jarvis reported.

“Climb!”

“Eleven percent,” Jarvis updated.

“Keep going!” 

“Jarvis, you are not helping!” I mumbled. I looked down at Obadiah, who already had ice forming on his suit. “It’s working!”

“Seven percent power.”

“Dad!” I looked over to see the arc reactor flickering. The original arc reactor he created in that cave was failing. But I would catch him. I had to catch him. 

“Just leave it on the screen! Stop telling me!” I faced back up and kept flying, but suddenly realized Dad had fallen back. 

“Shit,” I muttered, looking down. Obadiah was grabbing at Dad, trying to rip his suit apart. 

“You had a good idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!” 

“How’d you solve the icing problem?” Dad asked as I fell back to them. 

“Icing problem?” Suddenly Obadiah’s suit’s eye openings went dark. 

“Might want to look into it,” Dad suggested. He knocked on Obadiah’s helmet. Obadiah, frozen, began falling back to Earth. Dad hovered for a moment before his thrustors faltered.

“Two percent,” Jarvis said. Dad caught himself. “We are now running on emergency backup power.” And with that, Dad’s power went out and he began a freefall toward the surface of the planet.

“Well,” I muttered. I zoomed after him, pushing all I had into reaching for him. I caught him by the arm, but it took a while to slow us down. We toppled onto the roof of the arc reactor building. Dad rolled a few times. I jumped up. He sat up and pushed the mask from his face.

“Potts!”

“Tony!” Pepper cried in my earpiece. “Oh, my God, are you okay? Is Delilah okay?”

“I’m almost out of power. I’ve got to get out of this thing. I’ll be right there,” Dad said, groaning and standing. I glanced over at him and gasped.

“DAD!” 

Obadiah landed on the roof behind Dad. Dad turned around and flipped his mask back on.

“Nice try!” Obadiah taunted. Dad lifted his hand to blast the shit out of the man in the suit, but his arm was exposed. No thrustors or blasters. 

“Oh,” Dad muttered. Obadiah punched him and he went flying. I threw daggers of energy at Obadiah, then a huge ball of energy. It hit him flat in the chest and he flew to the edge of the roof. I walked to him and glared down.

“You are sick, Obi,” I whispered. He shot his leg out and kicked me back. I yelped as I flew into a vent and hit the ground. I groaned. Dad flew at Obadiah and punched him, but Obadiah grabbed Dad.

“Weapons status!” Dad called.

“Repulsors offline. Missiles offline,” Jarvis answered. I ran and jumped on top of Obadiah. I landed on his shoulders and looked at my hand. It sparked just as Obadiah’s armor flickered. I cocked my head and made a pulling motion with my hand. I pulled up and saw energy float off of Obadiah and into my hand. I gasped and slammed my hand back down on Obadiah, using his own energy against him.

“What the hell?” Obadiah yelled. 

“Leveling the playing field, Uncle Obi!” I cried with a grin. I summoned the fire with my hands and threw it down onto him, burning through his suit. Obadiah kicked Dad away.

“Potts? Del?” Dad whispered.

“Tony!” 

I jumped down and Obadiah turned to me. 

“Delilah,” he panted. “What the hell is going on with you? You get hit by a radioactive asteroid?”

“My mom’s an alien,” I said with a shrug. 

“This isn’t working,” Dad whispered. “We’re going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof.” 

“Well, how are you going to do that?”

“Are you a dumbass?” I hissed. I jumped up and flipped over Obadiah, blasting him with yellow and green fire. He smacked at his suit and growled at me, shooting a few missiles. I threw my hand up and the missiles stopped mid-air. I flicked my wrist, and they flew back into Obadiah and exploded. He fell back. “Whoa. Who knew I could do that?”

“You’re going to do it, Potts,” Dad said. “And Little Miss Name Calling is going to help!”

“But Obi—” I protested.

“I always knew something was wrong with you,” Obadiah spat as he picked himself up. I scoffed.

“Me?” I cried hysterically. I summoned the largest ball of energy I had ever summoned and held it in place. It grew brighter. “Something wrong with me? That—that’s fucked up coming from the guy who tried to MURDER HIS BEST FRIEND’S SON!” I yelled with all my might and hurled the energy at Obadiah. It knocked him down again. I huffed. 

“Go to the control console,” Dad said. “Open up all the circuits!” I rolled my eyes as Obadiah reached out to me. I did a backflip and landed near Dad. 

“I know how to set off the reactor, Dad.”

“I’m trying to tell Pepper!” Dad snapped as Obadiah shot more missiles. I jumped up and created a forcefield around Dad and me. I threw it out and the missiles exploded between us and Obadiah. 

“When I get clear of the roof, I’ll let you know. You’re going to hit the master bypass button. It’s going to fry everything up here. Del, go!”

“Dad!”

“GO!” he yelled, facing Obadiah. I ran and jumped off the roof. Pepper was standing at the shattered glass doors, staring at me. 

“Okay, we’re going in now,” she said. She stepped carefully over the glass as I hovered into the chamber. 

“Make sure you wait until I clear the roof. I’ll buy you some time,” Dad replied. Pepper ran to the controls. I stared up at the glass ceiling. Dad whizzed by, so did some shots. 

“Dad, come on, I could help—” 

“If you take one step onto this roof, I will kill you!”

“Ah, I think he’s serious,” I said to Pepper. She glared at me and began hitting switches. I looked at the arc reactor. “I could just…” I snapped my fingers and a small white flame lit on the tip of my pointer finger. I pointed it at the arc reactor, but Pepper lowered my hand.

“Can you not?”

“No, I won’t, I won’t!” I blew it out and helped with the console. “This is a horrible idea, by the way, but we all knew that.” Pepper and I both looked up to the glass ceiling to see Dad and Obadiah having a standoff. Pepper opened the glass box encasing the button that no one really needed to touch. 

“It’s ready, Tony, get off the roof!” Pepper yelled. Dad blocked some bullets from Obadiah. I gasped as the glass shattered above us. Pepper screamed and I pulled her into me and held a forcefield up around us. The glass shattered and fell around us. Pepper stared up in awe at the forcefield. “Del… this is… amazing…” She gasped suddenly. “TONY!” I looked up and saw Dad hanging from the roof. The glass made the power to the building and the arc reactor go crazy. 

“PEPPER! TIME TO HIT THE BUTTON!”

“YOU TOLD ME NOT TO!”

“YOU ARE SO STUPID!” I screamed. I looked from him to Pepper. “I can’t—if I let go of the forcefield—” 

“JUST DO IT!”

“YOU’LL DIE!”

“I’ll catch him! I’LL CATCH YOU!” Dad was hanging on by one hand. 

“PUSH IT!” Pepper winced and slammed her hand on the button. I pushed her, and the forcefield too, away. 

“RUN, PEPPER!” I screamed. I jumped up, carried by the sonic energy of the arc reactor. I grabbed my dad and hugged him tight as we were sent flying. We fell, then, after the energy collapsed, onto the roof. We toppled over each other and landed on our backs next to each other. I coughed and sparked. “Ouch.”

“Del,” Dad groaned. Obadiah screamed as energy coursed through his suit. I jumped up, but Dad pulled me back as energy from the arc reactor shot up in a large beam toward the sky. Obadiah was caught in the middle of it and I stared at him. He fell through the hole in the roof, unconscious. I looked down. He fell right into the arc reactor. 

“Oh, my God.” I threw a forcefield around Dad and I as the arc reactor exploded. Glass, fire, sparks, parts of the building flew everywhere, and I strained and screamed from the effort of keeping the forcefield up through the surge of opposing energy. I looked down at Dad. His eyes were closed. The arc reactor in his chest was dark. “No. No, no, no… J—Jarvis—give—give me v—vitals.”

“His heart is failing.”

“No,” I whispered, tears falling. “Come on, Dad.”

“TONY!” Pepper shouted. 

“Pepper! PEPPER! WE NEED HELP!” I bent my head down and rested it on the ground next to my dying father. “We need help.”


	13. Conclusion

I held an ice pack to my side as Pepper paced back and forth in front of me. 

“He’s gonna be fine,” I said. “The arc reactor—”

“The arc reactor is insane, Delilah,” she moaned as she sat down next to me. I sighed and leaned back as she slowly turned to look at me. “And I think now would be a good time for you to explain…” She looked around the hall and lowered her voice. “That!”

I sighed and nodded. “Well, uh, my mom really was an alien, and she had weird powers, and I have weird powers and I look… exactly like her. And I can fly and hear and see things from really far away, and… and I think there’s more that I don’t even know about.” Pepper nodded and put her hand on my knee.

“That sounds… absolutely crazy, but after everything that just happened…” She sighed and pulled me into a hug. “I’m just glad everyone’s okay.”

“Everyone,” I muttered, thinking of Obadiah. “Yeah…”

I watched Rhodey on the TV lead the press conference. Pepper dabbed makeup over some of Dad’s injuries as he read the newspaper. The headline was “Who is the Iron Man?” I looked down at my body. Other than my side still being sore, I had healed just fine. No cuts, no brusies, no clear blood, no nothing. It was dark last night, too, and somehow, no one saw me. No one that could confirm, at least, any physical description of me. Lots of people on the highway saw my energy but couldn’t get a good look at me. Even that SHIELD agent, Agent Coulson, had no idea who that blur was. He looked at me with suspicion in his eyes, but he had nothing on me. The iron suits, however, were noticed by everyone. 

“Iron Man,” Dad said, “That’s kind of catchy. It’s got a nice ring to it.”

“It’s not technically accurate,” I added. 

“Sure, the suit’s a gold titanium alloy—Ah!” Pepper ripped a butterfly bandage off his nose. “But it’s kind of evocative. The imagery, anyway.”

“You, too, Missy, I see those dark circles,” Pepper said, motioning for me. I groaned and walked over. She dabbed some makeup under my eyes. 

Agent Coulson walked into the room and shoved blue cards into Dad’s face. Dad looked up at him and put the paper away as he took the cards.

“Okay…”

“You were on your yacht.”

“Yeah…”

“We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night and sworn statements from your fifty guests.”

“You know that’s hardly an alibi for me, right?” I scoffed. 

“Consider it your bon voyage party,” Coulson replied, glancing at me. “You’re going back to Midtown tomorrow.” I grunted. Everyone already told me. I knew I had to go back—I had missed almost half of my last semester and couldn’t really afford to stay in Malibu for the rest of junior year. Besides, our safety situation had been handled. Pepper continued dabbing makeup on Dad. 

“See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper, Del, and me alone on the island.” Pepper gave him a look as she pulled off a second bandage. Dad winced.

“That’s what happened,” Coulson said. 

“Alright.”

“Just read it word for word.” Dad flipped through the cards and glanced back up at the agent. 

“There’s nothing about Stane here.”

“That’s being handled. He’s on vacation,” Coulson told him with a sigh. “Small aircraft have such a poor safety record.”

“After the shit he’s done, you’re gonna just let everyone believe he died in an accident?” I cried. “What about justice—?”

“He’s dead,” Coulson said matter-of-factly. 

“But what about the whole cover story that it’s a bodyguard?” Dad challenged. “He’s my body—I mean that’s kind of flimsy, don’t you think?”

“It’s Delilah’s bodyguard. And it was only a prototype.”

“Oh, come on, dude—”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Miss Stark.” Coulson looked at me. He nodded to Dad. “Just stick to the official statement and soon, this will all be behind you.” He glanced at the TV. “You’ve got ninety seconds.” He headed out and Pepper called after him as she followed him. 

“This is stupid,” Dad muttered. “No one will believe this.” I shrugged.

“Everyone believes it when Rhodey says it’s a training exercise,” I offered. Pepper glanced back at us and motioned for us to follow.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” she hissed, grabbing Dad’s jacket from the table. Dad walked to her.

“You know, it’s actually not that bad,” Dad said to her. I stood up to follow. “Even I don’t think I’m Iron Man.” Pepper laughed and put his jacket on him. 

“You’re not Iron Man,” she replied.

“Am. So.”

“You’re not!” She grinned at him. 

“Alright, suit yourself!” He paused and grinned back at her. “You know, if I were Iron Man, I’d have this girlfriend who knew my true identity—”

“Oh, my God, ew!” I groaned.

“She’d be a wreck, ‘cause she’d always be worrying that I was going to die, yet so proud of the man I’d become,” Dad continued, shoving me away. “She’d be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more… crazy about me.” Pepper just laughed as she brushed his jacket off. 

“Okay, I’m out,” I muttered as I followed the direction Coulson took. I walked out into the press room to stand in the back. It was about damn time he said something to her. They better get married.

“And now, Mr. Stark has prepared a statement,” Rhodey said, stepping aside so Dad could take the podium. “He will not be taking any questions. Thank you.” Dad did so well reading the cards and doing what he was told. So well up until that blonde reporter that I know he totally slept with because I see the way she looked at him opened her mouth. He fumbled over his words and glanced down at the cards. I facepalmed. 

“I’m just not the hero type, clearly,” Dad said, glancing to the back at me. “With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I’ve made, largely public, being… being a bad father.” I just smiled and shook my head. Rhodey leaned into Dad’s ear.

“Just stick to the cards, man,” he whispered. I laughed. That wasn’t happening anymore. 

“Yeah, okay, yeah…” Dad went back to reading. “The truth is…” He paused and the cards fell. He looked up at the crowd. “I am Iron Man.”

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered as everyone jumped to their feet and the camera flashes went crazy. 

We spent Thanksgiving together in Malibu. Dad, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and I gathered together at the Malibu mansion, and then I was whisked off back to New York Friday morning. I walked through the front door and set my bags down. I grinned and smelled the smell of the New York house. “It’s good to be back.”

“It’s good to have you back, Miss Stark,” Arnold said as he walked around me and took my bags. My phone rang and I pulled it out of my jeans and opened it. 

“Dad,” I answered. “Hey.”

“Hey, just calling to see if you made it,” he said. I heard tinkering and sparks flying in the back.

“Yeah, I just did actually. What are you working on?”

“Mark Four. Something to keep up with the new and improved me,” he replied, referring to the fresh arc reactor implanted in his chest. 

“Without me?” I whined. He just laughed.

“I’ll send some specs over for you to go over. You know, I couldn’t have done it without you. Obi didn’t know that. But I did. I do.”

“Dad,” I mumbled, walking into the kitchen. I hovered onto the counter and sat down on it. “It’s not a big deal—”

“It is a big deal! Besides, I want you to look at this suit. I think you could make some awesome additions. Maybe a little bit of that forcefield action?” I paused, then laughed.

“Yeah, okay, yeah. I can take a look.”

“Good luck back at school, kiddo,” Dad said. “I gotta go, Pepper’s making me sign something. Bye.”

“Bye, dad.” We hung up and I hopped off the counter. I sprinted upstairs to my room and opened my laptop. I had one new email, from Tony Stark: Mark IV needs you, kid. I grinned and opened the project up, sending dozens of holo-screens floating around my room. “Oh, Jarvis. We have a lot of work to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may be the last chapter from this story about Iron Man, but it's just the beginning of Delilah's story. Stick around to see her fall in love, travel the galaxy, and discover more about herself, her mom, and her mom's past. It just might be the key to Delilah's future.


End file.
